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Cornell University Library
PR 4963.A7 1864

Lays of ancient Rome,

3 1924 013 519 677

■■- | ■.

LAYS

A

N

C I

THOMAS

E N T ROM

BY

BABINGTON MACAULAY.

WITH

E.

ILLUSTRATIONS

, ORIGINAL AND FROM THE ANTIQUE,

BRAWN ON WOOD

BY GEORGE SCHAEF, JUN.

NEW EDITION.

PHILADELPHIA :

PUBLISHED BY E. H. BUTLER & CO.

18 64.
Y

PREFACE.

That what is called the history of the Kings and early
Consuls of Rome is to a great extent fabulous, few scholars
have, since the time of Beaufort, ventured to deny. It is
certain that, more than three hundred and sixty years after
the date ordinarily assigned for the foundation of the city,
the public records were, with scarcely an exception, destroyed
by the Gauls. It is certain, that the oldest annals of the com-
monwealth were compiled more than a century and a half
after this destruction of the records. It is certain, therefore,
that the great Latin writers of the Augustan age did not

b PREFACE.

possess those materials, without which a trustworthy account
of the infancy of the republic could not possibly be framed.
Those writers own, indeed, that the chronicles to which they
had access were filled with battles that were never fought,
and Consuls that were never inaugurated ; and we have abun-
dant proof that, in these chronicles, events of the greatest
importance, such as the issue of the war with Porsena, and
the issue of the war with Brennus, were grossly misrepre-
sented. Under these circumstances a wise man will look
with great suspicion on the legend which has come down to
us. He will perhaps be inclined to regard the princes who
are said to have founded the civil and religious institutions
of Rome, the son of Mars, and the husband of Egeria, as
mere mythological personages, of the same class with Perseus
and Ixion. As he draws nearer and nearer to the confines
of authentic history, he will become less and less hard of
belief. He will admit that the most important parts of the
narrative have some foundation in truth. But he will dis-
trust almost all the details, not only because they seldom
rest on any solid evidence, but also because he will con-
stantly detect in them, even when they are within the limits
of physical possibility, thai? peculiar character, more easily
understood than defined, which distinguishes the creations

PREFACE. '

of the imagination from the realities of the world in which
we live.

The early history of Eome is indeed far more poetical than
anything else in Latin literature. The loves of the Vestal
and the God of War, the cradle laid among the reeds of
Tiber, the fig-tree, the she-wolf, the shepherd's cabin, the re-
cognition, the fratricide, the rape of the Sabines, the death of
Tarpeia, the fall of Hostus Hostilius, the struggle of Mettus
Curtius through the marsh, the women rushing with torn
raiment and dishevelled hair between their fathers and their
husbands, the nightly meetings of Numa and the Nymph by
the well in the sacred grove, the fight of the three Romans
and the three Albans, the purchase of the Sibylline books,
the crime of Tullia, the simulated madness of Brutus, the
ambiguous reply of the Delphian oracle to the Tarquins,
the wrongs of Lucretia, the heroic actions of Horatius Codes,
of Scsevola, and of Cloelia, the battle of Regillus, won by the
aid of Castor and Pollux, the defence of Cremera, the touch-
ing story of Coriolanus, the still more touching story of Vir-
ginia, the wild legend about the draining of the Alban lake,
the combat between Valerius Corvus and the gigantic Gaul,
are among the many instances which will at once suggest
themselves to every reader.

» PREFACE.

In the narrative of Livy, who was a man of fine imagina-
tion, these stories retain much of their genuine character.
Nor could even the tasteless Dionysius distort and mutilate
them into mere prose. The poetry shines, in spite of him,
through the dreary pedantry of his eleven books. It is dis-
cernible in the most tedious and in the most superficial mo-
dern works on the early times of Rome. It enlivens the
dulness of the Universal History, and gives a charm to the
most meagre abridgments of Goldsmith.

Even in the age of Plutarch, there were discerning men
who rejected the popular account of the foundation of Eome,
because that account appeared to them to have the air, not of
a history, but of a romance or a drama. Plutarch, who was
displeased at their incredulity, had nothing better to say in
reply to*their arguments than that chance sometimes turns
poet, and produces trains of events not to be distinguished from
the most elaborate plots which are constructed by art* But

* "YitOTzrov [iev bimq iarl zd dpa/ianxov xai TtXatr/mraideg' ou <SsT 8k amaxiiv, Try
rupjv Cpmvras, o"wv ironj/iaran/ d-qiuoupyoq ion. — Plut. Bom. viii. This remark-
able passage has been more grossly interpreted than any other in the
Greek language, where the sense was so obvious. The Latin version of
Cruserius, the French version of Amyot, the old English version by se-
veral hands, and the later English version by Langhorne, are all equally
destitute of every trace of the meaning of the original. None of the trans-
lators saw even that noty/m is a poem. They all render it an event.

PREFACE. 9

though the existence of a poetical element in the early his-
tory of the Great City was detected so many ages ago, the
first critic who distinctly saw from what source that poeti-
cal element had been derived was James Perizonius, one of
the most acute and learned antiquaries of the seventeenth
century. His theory, which, in his own days, attracted little
or no notice, was revived in the present generation by Nie-
buhr, a man who would have been the first writer of his
time, if his talent for communicating truths had borne any
proportion to his talent for investigating them. That theory
has been adopted by several eminent scholars of our own
country, particularly by the Bishop of St. David's, by Professor
Maiden, and by the lamented Arnold. It appears to be now
generally received by men conversant with classical antiquity ;
and indeed it rests on such strong proofs, both int&rnal and
external, that it will not be easily subverted. A popular
exposition of this theory, and of the evidence by which it is
supported, may not be without interest even for readers who
are unacquainted with the ancient languages.

The Latin literature which has come down to us is of later
date than the commencement of the Second Punic War, and
consists almost exclusively of words fashioned on Greek mo-
dels. The Latin metres, heroic, elegiac, lyric, and dramatic,

10

PREFACE.

are of Greek origin. The best Latin epic poetry is the feeble
echo of the Iliad and Odyssey. The best Latin eclogues are
imitations of Theocritus. The plan of the most finished di-
dactic poem in the Latin tongue was taken from Hesiod. The
Latin tragedies are bad copies of the master-pieces of Sopho-
cles and Euripides. The Latin comedies are free translations
from Demophilus, Menander, and Apollodorus. The Latin
philosophy was borrowed, without alteration, from the Portico
and the Academy ; and the great Latin orators constantly pro-
posed to themselves as patterns the speeches of Demosthenes
and Lysias.

But there was an earlier Latin literature, a literature truly
Latin, which has wholly perished, which had, indeed, almost
wholly perished long before those whom we are in the habit
of regarding as the greatest Latin writers were born. That
literature abounded with metrical romances, such as are found
in every country where there is much curiosity and intelli-
gence, but little reading and writing. All human beings, not
utterly savage, long for some information about past times,
and are delighted with narratives which present pictures to
the- eye of the mind. But it is only in very enlightened
communities that books are readily accessible. Metrical com-
position, therefore, which, in a highly civilized nation, is a

PREFACE. 11

mere luxury, is, in nations imperfectly civilized, almost a
necessary of life, and is valued less on account of the pleasure
which it gives to the ear, than on account of the help which
it gives to the memory. A man who can invent or embellish
an interesting story, and put it into a form which others
may easily retain in their recollection, will always be highly
esteemed by a people eager for amusement and information,
but destitute of libraries. Such is the origin- of ballad-poetry,
a species of composition which scarcely ever fails to spring up
and nourish in every society, at a certain point in the pro-
gress towards refinement. Tacitus informs us that songs were
the only memorials of the past which the ancient Germans
possessed. We learn from Lucan and from Ammianus Mar-
cellinus, that the brave actions of the ancient Gauls were com-
memorated in the verses of Bards. During many ages, and
through many revolutions, minstrelsy retained its influence
over both the Teutonic and the Celtic race. The vengeance
exacted by the spouse of Attila for the murder of Siegfried,
was celebrated in rhymes, of which Germany is still justly
proud. The exploits of Athelstane were commemorated by
the Anglo-Saxons, and those of Canute by the Danes, in rude
poems, of which a few fragments have come down to us.
The chants of the Welsh harpers, preserved through ages of

12 PREFACE.

darkness, a faint and doubtful memory of Arthur. In the
Highlands of Scotland may still be gleaned some relics of the
old songs about Cuthullin and Fingal. The long struggle
of the Servians against the Ottoman power was recorded in
lays full of martial spirit. "We learn from Herrera that,
when a Peruvian Inca died, men of skill were appointed to
celebrate him in verses, which all the people learned by
heart, and sang in public on days of festival. The feats of
Kurroglou, the great freebooter of Turkistan, recounted in
ballads composed by himself, are known in every village of
Northern Persia. Captain Beechey heard the bards of the
Sandwich Islands recite the heroic achievements of Tame-
hameha, the most illustrious of their kings. Mungo Park
found in the heart of Africa a class of singing men, the
only annalists of their rude tribes, and heard them tell the
story of the victory which Darnel, the negro prince of the
Jaloffs, won over Abdulkader, the Mussulman tyrant of Foota
Torra. This species of poetry attained a high degree of
excellence among the Castilians, before they began to copy
Tuscan patterns. It attained a still higher degree of excel-
lence among the English and the Lowland Scotch, during
the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. But it
reached its full perfection in ancient Greece; for there can

PREFACE.

13

be no doubt that the great Homeric poems are generically
ballads, though widely distinguished from all other ballads,
and indeed from almost all other human compositions, by
transcendent sublimity and beauty.

As it is agreeable to general experience that, at a certain
stage in the progress of society, ballad-poetry should flourish,
so is it also agreeable to general experience that, at a subse-
quent stage in the progress of society, ballad-poetry should be
undervalued and neglected. Knowledge advances : manners
change : great foreign models of composition are studied and
imitated. The phraseology of the old minstrels becomes ob-
solete. Their versification, which, having received its laws
only from the ear, abounds in irregularities, seems licentious
and uncouth. Their simplicity appears beggarly when com-
pared with the quaint forms and gaudy colouring of such
artists as Cowley and Gongora. The ancient lays, unjustly
despised by the learned and polite, linger for a time in the
memory of the vulgar, and are at length too often irretriev-
ably lost. We cannot wonder that the ballads of Eome
should have altogether disappeared, when we remember how
very narrowly, in spite of the invention of printing, those of
our own country and those of Spain escaped the same fate.
There is indeed little doubt that oblivion covers many Eng-

14 PREFACE.

lish songs equal to any that were published by Bishop Percy,
and many Spanish songs as good as the best of those which
have been so happily translated by Mr. Lockhart. Eighty
years ago England possessed only one tattered copy of Childe
Waters and Sir Cauline, and Spain only one tattered copy
of the noble poem of the Cid. The snuff of a candle or a
mischievous dog, might in a moment have deprived the world
for ever of any of those fine compositions. Sir Walter Scott,
who united to the fire of a great poet the minute curiosity
and patient diligence of a great antiquary, was but just in
time to save the precious relics of the Minstrelsy of the
Border. In Germany, the lay of the Nibelungs had been
long utterly forgotten when, in the eighteenth century, it
was, for the first time, printed from a manuscript in the old
library of a noble family. In truth, the only people who,
through their whole passage from simplicity to the highest
civilization, never for a moment ceased to love and admire
their old ballads, were the Greeks.

That the early Romans should have had ballad-poetry,
and that this poetry should have perished, is therefore not
strange. It would, on the contrary, have been strange if
these things had not come to pass ; and we should be justified
in pronouncing them highly probable, even if we had no

PREFACE. 15

direct evidence on the subject. But we have direct evidence
of unquestionable authority.

Ennius, who flourished in the time of the Second Punic
War, was regarded in the Augustan age as the father of
Latin poetry. He was, in truth, the father of the second
school of Latin poetry, the only school of which the works
have descended to us. But from Ennius himself we learn
that there were poets who stood to him in the same relation
in which the author of the romance of Count Alarcos stood
to Garcilaso, or the author of the " Lytell Geste of Robyn
Hode" to Lord Surrey. Ennius speaks of verses which the
Fauns and the Bards were wont to chant in the old time,
when none had yet studied the graces of speech, when none
had yet climbed the peaks sacred to the Goddesses of Grecian
song. " Where," Cicero mournfully asks, " are those old
verses now?"*

* " Quid ? Nostri veteres versus ubi sunt?

' Quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant

Cum neque Musarum scopulos quisquam superlrat,
Nee dicti studiosus erat.' "

Brutus, xviii.

The Muses, it should be observed, are Greek divinities. The Italian God-
desses of verse were the Camcense. At a later period, the appellations
were used indiscriminately; but in the age of Ennius there was probably
a distinction. In the epitaph of Nsevius, who was the representative of

16 PREFACE.

Contemporary with Ennius was Quintus Fabius Pictor, the
earliest of the Roman annalists. His account of the infancy
and youth of Romulus and Remus has been preserved by
Dionysius, and contains a very remarkable reference to the
ancient Latin poetry. Fabius says that, in his time, his
countrymen were still in the habit of singing ballads about
the twins. "Even in the hut of Faustulus," — so these old
lays appear to have run, — " the children of Rhea and Mars
were, in port and in spirit, not like unto swineherds or
cowherds, but such that men might well guess them to' be of
the blood of Kings and Gods."*

the old Italian school of poetry, the Camcene3, not the Muses, are repre-
sented as grieving for the loss of their votary. The " Musarum scopuli"
are evidently the peaks of Parnassus.

Scaliger, in a note on Varro (Z>e Lingua Ziatina, lib. vi.), suggests, with
great ingenuity, that the Fauns, who were represented by the supersti-
tion of later ages as a race of monsters, half gods and half brutes, may
really have been a class of men who exercised in Latium, at a very re-
mote period, the same functions which belonged to the Magians in Persia
and to the Bards in Gaul.

* 01 <Se ivSpwdivTsq yivovzai, xard re dgiwtnv popyijs xai ypovTjfiaToi; oyxov, ou
aooyopSoiq xaX fiouxoXuiq iouoreq, akk' owog av n<; a£imou<; rou? ix fiatrtXeioo re
<p(>vTa.<; yivous, xai and 8cu/i6vwv anopa.% yeviodai vo;xi^opivou<;, atq iv to?? narptott;
upvoic; bizd 'Pw/ialiuv Irt xai vuv aderat. — Dion. Hal. i. 79. This passage has
sometimes been cited as if Dionysius had been speaking in his own per-
son, and had, Greek as he was, been so industrious or so fortunate as to
discover some valuable remains of that early Latin poetry which the
greatest Latin writers of his age regretted as hopelessly lost. Such a
supposition is highly improbable; and indeed it seems clear from the

PREFACE. 17

Cato the Censor, who also lived in the days of the Second

Punic War, mentioned this lost literature in his lost work on

context that Dionysius, as Eeiske and other editors evidently thought,
was merely quoting from Fabius Pictor. The whole passage has the
air of an extract from an ancient chronicle, and is introduced by the

words, Ko'ivroq Tjkv $6.6101;, 6 Wxrop Xtyo/xsvoi;, TrjSe ypdtpei.

Another argument may be urged which seems to deserve considera-
tion. The author of the passage in question mentions a thatched hut,
which, in his time, stood between the summit of Mount Palatine and the
Circus. This hut, he says, was built by Eomulus, and was constantly
kept in repair at the public charge, but never in any respect embellished.
Now, in the age of Dionysius there certainly was at Eome a thatched
hut, said to have been that of Eomulus. But this hut, as we learn from
Vitruvius, stood, not near the Circus, but in the Capitol. (Vit. ii. 1.)
If, therefore, we understand Dionysius to speak in his own person, we
can reconcile his statement with that of Yitruvius only by supposing
that there were at Eome, in the Augustan age, two thatched huts, both
believed to have been built by Eomulus, and both carefully repaired, and
held in high honour. The objections to such a supposition seem to be
strong. Neither Dionysius nor Vitruvius speaks of more than one such
hut. Dio Cassius informs us that twice, during the long administration
of Augustus, the hut of Eomulus caught fire, (xlviii. 43, liv. 29.) Had
there been two such huts, would he not have told us of which he spoke ?
An English historian would hardly give an account of a fire at Queen's
College without saying whether it was at Queen's College, Oxford, or at
Queen's College, Cambridge. Marcus Seneca, Macrobius, and Conon, a
Greek writer from whom Photius has made large extracts, mention only
one hut of Eomulus, that in the Capitol. {M. Seneca, Contr. i. 6 ; Macro-
bius, Sat. i. 15; Photius, Bibl. 186.) Ovid, Livy, Petronius, Valerius
Maximus, Lucius Seneca, and St. Jerome, mention only one hut of Eo-
mulus, without specifying the site. {Ovid. Fasti, iii. 183; Liv. v. 53; Pe-
tronius, Fragm.; Val. Max. iv. 4; L. Seneca, Consolatio ad Helviam; J).
Hieron. ad Paulinianum de Didymo.)

The whole difficulty is removed if we suppose that Dionysius was

18 PREFACE.

the antiquities of his country. Many ages, he said, before his
time, there were ballads in praise of illustrious men ; and these
ballads it was the fashion for the guests at banquets to sing
in turn while the piper played. " Would," exclaims Cicero,
" that we still had the old ballads of which Cato speaks !"*
Valerius Maximus gives us exactly similar information,

merely quoting Fabius Pictor. Nothing is more probable than that the
cabin, which in the time of Fabius stood near the Circus, might, long
before the age of Augustus, have been transported to the Capitol, as the
place fittest, by reason both of its safety and of its sanctity, to contain
so precious a relic.

The language of Plutarch confirms this hypothesis. He describes,
with great precision, the spot where Eomulus dwelt, on the slope of
Mount Palatine leading to the Circus ; but he says not a word implying
that the dwelling was still to be seen there. Indeed, his expressions
imply that it was no longer there. The evidence of Solinus is still more
to the point. He, like Plutarch, describes the spot where Eomulus had
resided, and says expressly that the hut had been there, but that in his
time it was there no longer. The site, it is certain, was well remem-
bered ; and probably retained its old name, as Charing Cross and the
Haymarket have done. This is probably the explanation of the words,
" casa Eomuli," in Victor's description of the Tenth Eegion of Eome,
under Yalentinian.

* Cicero refers twice to this important passage in Cato's Antiquities :
" Gravissimus auctor in Originibus dixit Cato, morem apud majores hunc
epularum fuisse, ut deinceps, qui accubarent, canerent ad tibiam claro-
rum virorum laudes atque virtutes. Ex quo perspicuum est, et cantus
turn fuisse rescriptos vocum sonis, et carmina." — Tusc. Qucest. iv. 2.
Again : " Utinam exstarent ilia carmina, quae, multis saeculis ante suam
setatem, in epulis esse cantitata a singulis convivis de clarorum virorum
laudibus, in Originibus scriptum reliquit Cato." — Brutus, xix.

PREFACE. 19

without mentioning his authority, and observes that the an-
cient Roman ballads were probably of more benefit to the
young than all the lectures of the Athenian schools, and that
to the influence of the national poetry were to be ascribed the
virtues of such men as Camillus and Fabricius *

Varro, whose authority on all questions connected with the
antiquities of his country is entitled to the greatest respect,
tells us that at banquets it was once the fashion for boys to
sing, sometimes with and sometimes without instrumental
music, ancient ballads in praise of men of former times. These
young performers, he observes, were of unblemished character,
a circumstance which he probably mentioned because, among
the Greeks, and indeed in his time among the Romans also,
the morals of singing boys were in no high repute. f

The testimony of Horace, though given incidentally, con-
firms the statements of Cato, Valerius Maximus, and Varro.
The poet predicts that, under the peaceful administration of

* " Majores natu in conviviis ad tibias egregia superiorum opera car-
mine comprehensa pangebant, quo ad ea imitanda juventutem alacrio-
rem redderent. . . . Quas Athenas, quam scholam, quae alienigena studia
huic domestic® discipline prsetulerim ? Inde oriebantur Camilli, Soi-
piones, Fabricii, Marcelli, Fabii." — Vol. Max. ii. 1.

f " In conviviis pueri modesti ut cantarent carmina antiqua, in quibus
laudes erant majorum, et assa voce, et cum tibicine." Nonius, Assa voce
pro sola.

20 PREFACE.

Augustus, the Romans will, over their full goblets, sing to the
pipe, after the fashion of their fathers, the deeds of brave cap-
tains, and the ancient legends touching the origin of the city.*

The proposition, then, that Rome had ballad-poetry is not
merely in itself highly probable, but is fully proved by direct
evidence of the greatest weight.

This proposition being established, it becomes easy to un-
derstand why the early history of the city is unlike almost
everything else in Latin literature, native where almost every-
thing else is borrowed, imaginative where almost everything
else is prosaic. We can scarcely hesitate to pronounce that
the magnificent, pathetic, and truly national legends, which
present so striking a contrast to all that surrounds them, are
broken and defaced fragments of that early poetry which, even
in the age of Cato the Censor, had become antiquated, and of
which Tully had never heard a line.

That this poetry should have been suffered to perish will

* " Nbsque et profestis lucibus et sacris,
Inter jocosi munera Liberi,

Cum prole matronisque nostris,
Eite Deos prius apprecati,
Virtute funetos, more patrum, duces,
Lydis remixto carmine tibiis,
Trojamque, et Ancbisen, et almse
Progeniem Veneris canemus."

Carm. iv. 15.

PREFACE. 21

not appear strange when we consider how complete was the
triumph of the Greek genius over the public mind of Italy. It
is probable that, at an early period, Homer and Herodotus fur-
nished some hints to the Latin minstrels :* but it was not till
after the war with Pyrrhus that the poetry of Rome began to
put off its old Ausonian character. The transformation was
soon consummated. The conquered, says Horace, led captive
the conquerors. It was precisely at the time at which the
Roman people rose to unrivalled political ascendency that
they stooped to pass under the intellectual yoke. It was pre-
cisely at the time at which the sceptre departed from Greece
that the empire of her language and of her arts became uni-
versal and despotic. The revolution indeed was not effected
without a struggle. Naevius seems to have been the last of
the ancient line of poets. Ennius was the founder of a new
dynasty. Nsevius celebrated the First Punic War in Satur-
nian verse, the old national verse of Italy .f Ennius sang the

* See the Preface to the Lay of the Battle of Begillus.

f Cicero speaks highly in more than one place of this poem of Naevius ;
Ennius sneered at it, and stole from it.

As to the Saturnian measure, see Hermann's Mementa Doctrince Me-
trical, iii. 9.

The Saturnian line, according to the grammarians, consisted of two
parts. The first was a catalectic dimeter iambic ; the second was com-
posed of three trochees. But the license taken by the early Latin poets

22 PREFACE.

Second Punic War in numbers borrowed from the Iliad. The
elder poet, in the epitaph which he wrote for himself, and

seems to have been almost boundless. The most perfect Saturnian line
which has been preserved was the work, not of a professional artist, but
of an amateur :

" Dabunt malum Metelli Nsevio poetse."

There has been much difference of opinion among learned men re-
specting the history of this measure. That it is the same with a Greek
measure used by Archilochus is indisputable. (Bentley, Phalaris, xi.)
But in spite of the authority of Terentianus Maurus, and of the still
higher authority of Bentley, we may venture to doubt whether the co-
incidence was not fortuitous. We constantly find the same rude and
simple numbers in different countries, under circumstances which make
it impossible to suspect that there has been imitation on either side.
Bishop Heber heard the children of a village in Bengal singing " Badha,
Badha," to the tune of " My boy Billy." Neither the Castilian nor the
German minstrels of the middle ages owed anything to Paros or to an-
cient Borne. Yet both the poem of the Cid and the poem of the Nibe-
lungs contain many Saturnian verses ; as, —

" Bstas nuevas a mio Cid eran venidas."

" A mi lo dicen; a ti dan las orejadas."

" Man mohte michel wunder von Sifride sagen."

" "Wa ich den Kiinic vinde daz sol man mir sagen."

Indeed, there cannot be a more perfect Saturnian line than one which
is sung in every English nursery, —

" The queen was in her parlour eating bread and honey;"

yet the author of this line, we may be assured, borrowed nothing from
either Nsevius or Archilochus.

On the other hand, it is by no means improbable that, two or three
hundred years before the time of Ennius, some Latin minstrel may have
visited Sybaris or Crotona, may have heard some verses of Archilochus

PREFACE. 23

which is a fine specimen of the early Eoman diction and ver-
sification, plaintively boasted that the Latin language had died

sung, may have been pleased with the metre, and may have introduced
it at Rome. Thus much is certain, that the Saturnian measure, if not a
native of Italy, was at least so early and so completely naturalized there
that its foreign origin was forgotten.

Bentley says indeed that the Saturnian measure was first brought
from Greece into Italy by Nsevius. But this is merely obiter dictum, to
use a phrase common in our courts of law, and would not have been de-
liberately maintained by that incomparable critic, whose memory is held
in reverence by all lovers of learning. The arguments which might be
brought against Bentley's assertion — for it is mere assertion, supported
by no evidence — are innumerable. A few will suffice.

1. Bentley's assertion is opposed to the testimony of Bnnius. Bnnius
sneered at Nsevius for writing on the First Punic War in verses such as
the old Italian bards used before Greek literature had been studied.
Now the poem of Nsevius was in Saturnian verse. Is it possible that
Ennius could have used such expressions, if the Saturnian verse had
been just imported from Greece for the first time ?

2. Bentley's assertion is opposed to the testimony of Horace. " When
Greece," says Horace, " introduced her arts into our uncivilized country,
those rugged Saturnian numbers passed away." Would Horace have
said this, if the Saturnian numbers had been imported from Greece just
before the hexameter ?

3. Bentley's assertion is opposed to the testimony of Festus and of
Aurelius Victor, both of whom positively say that the most ancient pro-
phecies attributed to the Fauns were in Saturnian verse.

4. Bentley's assertion is opposed to the testimony of Terentianus
Maurus, to whom he has himself appealed. Terentianus Maurus does
indeed say that the Saturnian measure, though believed by the Romans
from a very early period (" eredidit vetustas") to be of Italian invention,
was really borrowed from the Greeks. But Terentianus Maurus does
not say that it was first borrowed by Naevius. Nay, the expressions
used by Terentianus Maurus clearly imply the contrary : for how could

24 PREFACE.

with him.* Thus what to Horace appeared to be the first
faint dawn of Koman literature appeared to Naevius to be its
hopeless setting. In truth, one literature was setting, and
another dawning.

The victory of the foreign taste was decisive : and indeed
we can hardly blame the Romans for turning away with con-
tempt from the rude lays which had delighted their fathers,
and giving their whole admiration to the immortal productions
of Greece. The national romances, neglected by the great and
the refined whose education had been finished at Rhodes or
Athens, continued, it may be supposed, during some genera-
tions, to delight the vulgar. While Virgil, in hexameters of
exquisite modulation, described the sports of rustics, those rus-
tics were still singing their wild Saturnian ballads.f It is not
improbable that, at the time when Cicero lamented the irre-
parable loss of the poems mentioned by Cato, a search among
the nooks of the Apennines, as active as the search which Sir

the Eomans have believed, from a very early period, that this measure
was the indigenous production of Latium, if it was really brought over
from Greece in an age of intelligence and liberal curiosity, in the age
which gave birth to Ennius, Plautus, Cato the Censor, and other distin-
guished writers ? If Bentley's assertion were correct, there could have
been no more doubt at Eome about the Greek origin of the Saturnian
measure than about the Greek origin of hexameters or Sapphics.

* Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticse, i. 24.

f See Servius, in Georg. ii. 385.

PREFACE. 25

Walter Scott made among the descendants of the mosstroopers
of Liddesdale, might have brought to light many fine remains
of ancient minstrelsy; No such search was made. The Latin
ballads perished for ever. Yet discerning critics have thought
that they could still perceive in the early history of Rome nu-
merous fragments of this lost poetry, as the traveller on classic
ground sometimes finds, built into the heavy wall of a fort or
convent, a pillar rich with acanthus leaves, or a frieze where
the Amazons and Bacchanals seem to live. The theatres and
temples of the Greek and the Roman were degraded into the
quarries of the Turk and the Goth. Even so did the ancient
Saturnian poetry become the quarry in which a crowd of ora-
tors and annalists found the materials for their prose.

It is not difficult to trace the process by which the old songs
were transmuted into the form which they now wear. Fune-
ral panegyric and chronicle appear to have been the interme-
diate links which connected the lost ballads with the histories
now extant. Prom a very early period it was the usage that
an oration should be pronounced over the remains of a noble
Roman. The orator, as we learn from Polybius, was expected,
on such an occasion, to recapitulate all the services which the
ancestors of the deceased had, from the earliest time, rendered
to the commonwealth. There can be little doubt that the

26 PREFACE.

speaker on whom this duty was imposed would make use of
all the stories suited to his purpose which were to be found in
the popular lays. There can be as little doubt that the family
of an eminent man would preserve a copy of the speech which
had been pronounced over his corpse. The compilers of the
early chronicles would have recourse to these speeches ; and
the great historians of a later period would have recourse to
the chronicles.

It may be worth while to select a particular story, and to
trace its probable progress through these stages. The descrip-
tion of the migration of the Fabian house to Cremera is one of
the finest of the many fine passages which lie thick in the
earlier books of Livy. The Consul, clad in his military garb,
stands in the vestibule of his house, marshalling his clan,
three hundred and six fighting men, all of the same proud pa-
trician blood, all worthy to be attended by the fasces, and to
command the legions. A sad and anxious retinue of friends
accompanies the adventurers through the streets; but the
voice of lamentation is drowned by the shouts of admiring
thousands. As the procession passes the Capitol, prayers and
vows are poured forth, but in vain. The devoted band, leav-
ing Janus on the right, marches to its doom through the Gate
of Evil Luck. After achieving "high deeds of valour against

PREFACE. 27

overwhelming numbers, all perish save one child, the stock
from which the great Fabian race was destined again to spring,
for the safety and glory of the commonwealth. That this fine
romance, the details of which are so full of poetical truth, and
so utterly destitute of all show of historical truth, came origi-
nally from some lay which had often been sung with great ap-
plause at banquets, is in the highest degree probable. Nor is
it difficult to imagine a mode in which the transmission might
have taken place. The celebrated Quintus Fabius Maximus,
who died about twenty years before the First Punic War, and
more than forty years before Ennius was born, is said to have
been interred with extraordinary pomp. In the eulogy pro-
nounced over his body all the great exploits of his ancestors
were doubtless recounted and exaggerated. If there were then
extant songs which gave a vivid and touching description of
an event, the saddest and the most glorious in the long history
of the Fabian house, nothing could be more natural than that
the panegyrist should borrow from such songs their finest
touches, in order to adorn his speech. A few generations later
the songs would perhaps be forgotten, or remembered only by
shepherds and vinedressers. But the speech would certainly
be preserved in the archives of the Fabian nobles. Fabius
Pictor would be well acquainted with a document so interest-

28 PREFACE.

ing to his personal feelings, and would insert large extracts
from it in his rude chronicle. That chronicle, as we know,
was the oldest to which Livy had access. Livy would at a
glance distinguish the bold strokes of the forgotten poet from
the dull and feeble narrative by which they were surrounded,
would retouch them with a delicate and powerful pencil, and
would make them immortal.

That this might happen at Rome can scarcely be doubted;
for something very like this has happened in several countries,
and, among others, in our own. Perhaps the theory of Peri-
zonius cannot be better illustrated than by showing that what
he supposes to have taken place in ancient times has, beyond
all doubt, taken place in modern times.

" History," says Hume with the utmost gravity, " has pre-
served some instances of Edgar's amours, from which, as from
a specimen, we may form a conjecture of the rest." He then
tells very agreeably the stories of Elfleda and Elfrida, two sto-
ries which have a most suspicious air of romance, and which,
indeed, greatly resemble, in their general character, some of
the legends of early Rome. He cites, as his authority for these
two tales, the chronicle of William of Malmesbury, who lived
in the time of King Stephen. The great majority of readers
suppose that the device by which Elfleda was substituted for

PREFACE. 29

her young mistress, the artifice by which Athelwold obtained
the hand of Elfrida, the detection of that artifice, the hunting
party, and the vengeance of the amorous king, are things about
which there is no more doubt than about the execution of
Anne Boleyn, or the slitting of Sir John Coventry's nose. But
when we turn to William of Malmesbury, we find that Hume,
in his eagerness to relate these pleasant fables, has overlooked
one very important circumstance. William does indeed tell
both the stories ; but he gives us distinct notice that he does
not warrant their truth, and that they rest on no better au-
thority than that of ballads.*

Such is the way in which these two well-known tales have
been handed down. They originally appeared in a poetical
form. They found their way from ballads into an old chroni-
cle. The ballads perished ; the chronicle remained. A great
historian, some centuries after the ballads had been altogether
forgotten, consulted the chronicle. He was struck by the
lively colouring of these ancient fictions : he transferred them
to his pages; and thus we find inserted, as unquestionable
facts, in a narrative which is likely to last as long as the Eng-

* " Infamias quas post dieam magis resperserunt cantilenas." Edgar
appears to have been most mercilessly treated in the Anglo-Saxon bal-
lads. He was the favourite of the monks; and the monks and minstrels
were at deadly feud.

30 PREFACE.

lish tongue, the inventions of some minstrel whose works were
probably never committed to writing, whose name is buried in
oblivion, and whose dialect has become obsolete. It must,
then, be admitted to be possible, or rather highly probable,
that the stories of Romulus and Remus, and of the Horatii
and Curiatii, may have had a similar origin.

Castilian literature will furnish us with another parallel case.
Mariana, the classical historian of Spain, tells the story of the
ill-starred marriage which the King Don Alonso brought about
between the heirs of Carrion and the two daughters of the Cid.
The Cid bestowed a princely dower on his sons-in-law. But
the young men were base and proud, cowardly and cruel.
They were tried in danger, and found wanting. They fled be-
fore the Moors, and once, when a lion broke out of his den,
they ran and crouched in an unseemly hiding-place. They
knew that they were despised, and took counsel how they
might be avenged. They parted from their father-in-law with
many signs of love, and set forth on a journey with Dona El-
vira and Dona Sol. In a solitary place the bridegrooms seized
their brides, stripped them, scourged them, and departed, leav-
ing them for dead. But one of the house of Bivar, suspecting
foul play, had followed the travellers in disguise. The ladies
were brought back safe to the house of their father. Com-

PREFACE. 31

plaint was made to the King. It was adjudged by the Cortes
that the dower given by the Cid should be returned, and that
the heirs of Carrion together with one of their kindred should
do battle against three knights of the party of the Cid. The
guilty youths would have declined the combat ; but all their
shifts were vain. They were vanquished in the lists, and for
ever disgraced, while their injured wives were sought in mar-
riage by great princes.*

Some Spanish writers have laboured to show, by an exa-
mination of dates and circumstances, that this story is untrue.
Such confutation was surely not needed ; for the narrative is
on the face of it a romance. How it found its way into Ma-
riana's history is quite clear. He acknowledges his obligations
to the ancient chronicles; and had doubtless before him the
"Cronica del famoso Cavallero Cid Euy Diez Campeador,"
which had been printed as early as the year 1552. He little
suspected that all the most striking passages in this chronicle
were copied from a poem of the twelfth century, a poem of
which the language and versification had long been obsolete,
but which glowed with no common portion of the fire of the
Iliad. Yet such was the fact. More than a century and a
half after the death of Mariana, this venerable ballad, of which
* Mariana, lib. x. cap. 4.

«-= PREFACE.

one imperfect copy on parchment, four hundred years old, had
been preserved at Bivar, was for the first time printed. Then
it was found that every interesting circumstance of the story
of the heirs of Carrion was derived by the eloquent Jesuit from
a song of which he had never heard, and which was composed
by a minstrel whose very name had long been forgotten.*

Such, or nearly such, appears to have been the process by
which the lost ballad-poetry of Rome was transformed into
history. To reverse that process, to transform some portions
of early Roman history back into the poetry out of which they
were made, is the object of this work.

In the following poems the author speaks, not in his own
person, but in the persons of ancient minstrels who know only
what a Roman citizen, born three or four hundred years before
the Christian era, may be supposed to have known, and who
are in nowise above the passions and prejudices of their age
and nation. To these imaginary poets must be ascribed some
blunders which are so obvious that it is unnecessary to point
them out. The real blunder would have been to represent
these old poets as deeply versed in general history, and stu-

* See the account which Sanchez gives of the Bivar manuscript in the
first volume of the Coleccion de Poesias Castellanas anteriores al Siglo XV.
Part of the story of the lords of Carrion, in the poem of the Cid, has been
translated by Mr. Prere in a manner above all praise.

PREFACE. 33

dious of chronological accuracy. To them must also be attri-
buted the illiberal sneers at the Greeks, the furious party spirit,
the contempt for the arts of peace, the love of war for its own
sake, the ungenerous exultation over the vanquished, which
the reader will sometimes observe. To portray a Eoman of
the age of Camillus or Curius as superior to national antipa-
thies, as mourning over the devastation and slaughter by which
empire and triumphs were to be won, as looking on human
suffering with the sympathy of Howard, or as treating con-
quered enemies with the delicacy of the Black . Prince, would
be to violate all dramatic propriety. The old Komans had
some great virtues, — fortitude, temperance, veracity, spirit to
resist oppression, respect for legitimate authority, fidelity in
the observing of contracts, disinterestedness, ardent patriotism;
but Christian charity and chivalrous generosity were alike un-
known to them.

It would have been obviously improper to mimic the man-
ner of any particular age or country. Something has been
borrowed, however, from our own old ballads, and more from
Sir "Walter Scott, the great restorer of our ballad-poetry. To
the Iliad still greater obligations are due; and those obliga-
tions have been contracted with the less hesitation, because
there is reason to believe that some of the old Latin min-

34 PREFACE.

strels really had recourse to that inexhaustible store of poetical
images.

It would have been easy to swell this little volume to a
very considerable bulk, by appending notes filled with quota-
tions ; but to a learned reader such notes are not necessary ;
for an unlearned reader they would have little interest ; and
the judgment passed both by the learned and by the unlearned
on a work of the imagination will always depend much more
on the general character and spirit of such a work than on
minute details.

H B A T I U S.

There can be little doubt that among those parts of early
Roman history which had a poetical origin was the legend of
Horatius Codes. We have several versions of the story, and
these versions differ from each other in points of no small
importance. Polybius, there is reason to believe, heard the
tale recited over the remains of some Consul or Praetor de-
scended from the old Horatian patricians ; for he introduces it
as a specimen of the narratives with which the Romans were

38 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

in the habit of embellishing their funeral oratory. It is
remarkable that, according to him, Horatius defended the
bridge alone, and perished in the waters. According to the
chronicles which Livy and Dionysius followed, Horatius had
two companions, swam safe to shore, and was loaded with
honours and rewards.

These discrepancies are easily explained. Our own litera-
ture, indeed, will furnish an exact parallel to what may have
taken place at Rome. It is highly probable that the memory
of the war of Porsena was preserved by compositions much
resembling the two ballads which stand first in the Relics of
Ancient English Poetry. In both those ballads the English,
commanded by the Percy, fight with the Scots, commanded by
the Douglas. In one of the ballads the Douglas is killed by a
nameless English archer, and the Percy by a Scottish spear-
man : in the other, the Percy slays the Douglas in single com-
bat, and is himself made prisoner. In the former, Sir Hugh
Montgomery is shot through the heart by a Northumbrian
bowman : in the latter he is taken, and exchanged for the
Percy. Yet both the ballads relate to the same event, and
that an event which probably took place within the memory
of persons who were alive when both the ballads were made.
One of the minstrels says :

HORATITJS. 39

" Old men that knowen the grounde well yenoughe
Call it the battell of Otterburn :
At Otterburn began this spume
Upon a monnyn day.
Ther was the dougghte Doglas slean :
The Perse never went away."

The other poet sums up the event in the following lines :

" Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne
Bytwene the nyghte and the day :
Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyfe,
And the Percy was lede away."

It is by no means unlikely that there were two old Eoman
lays about the defence of the bridge; and that, while the story
which Livy has transmitted to us was preferred by the multi-
tude, the other, which ascribed the whole glory to Horatius
alone, may have been the favourite with the Horatian House.

The following ballad is supposed to have been made about a
hundred and twenty years after the war which it celebrates,
and just before the taking of Rome by the Gauls. The
author seems to have been an honest citizen, proud of the
military glory of his country, sick of the disputes of factions,
and much given to pining after good old times which had
never really existed. The allusion, however, to the partial

40 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

manner in which the public lands were allotted could proceed
only from a plebeian ; and the allusion to the fraudulent sale
of spoils marks the date of the poem, and shows that the poet
shared in the general discontent with which the proceedings of
Camillus, after the taking of Veii, were regarded.

The penultimate syllable of the name Porsena has been
shortened in spite of the authority of Niebuhr, who pronounces,
without assigning any ground for his opinion, that Martial was
guilty of a decided blunder in the line,

" Hanc spectare manum Porsena non potuit."

It is not easy to understand how any modern scholar, what-
ever his attainments may be, — and those of Niebuhr were
undoubtedly immense, — can venture to pronounce that Martial
did not know the quantity of a word which he must have
uttered and heard uttered a hundred times before he left school.
Niebuhr seems also to have forgotten that Martial has fellow-
culprits to keep him in countenance. Horace has committed
the same decided blunder ; for he gives us, as a pure iambic
line,

" Minacis aut Etrusca Porsense manus."

Silius Italicus has repeatedly offended in the same way, as
when he says,

HORATIUS.

41

" Cernitur effugiene ardentem Porsena dextram :"

and again,

" Clusinum valgus, cum, Porsena magne, jubebas."

A modern writer may be content to err in such company.

Niebuhr's supposition that each of the three defenders of the
bridge was the representative of one of the three patrician
tribes is both ingenious and probable, and has been adopted in
the following poem.

TAF-QyiNivr.

H E A T I U S.

A LAY MADE ABOUT THE YEAK OP THE CITY CCCLX.

Lars Porsena of Clusium

By the Nine Gods he swore
That the great house of Tarquin

Should suffer wrong no more.
By the Nine Gods he swore it,

And named a trysting day,
And bade his messengers ride forth,
East and west and south and north,

To summon his array.

44 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

II.
East and west and south and north

The messengers ride fast,
And tower and town and cottage

Have heard the trumpet's blast.
Shame on the false Etruscan

Who lingers in his home,
When Porsena of Clusium

Is on the march for Rome.

III.
The horsemen and the footmen

Are pouring in amain,
From many a stately market-place ;

From many a fruitful plain ;
From many a lonely hamlet,

Which, hid by beech and pine,
Like an eagle's nest, hangs on the crest.

Of purple Apennine ;

IV.

From lordly Volaterrse,

Where scowls the far-famed hold

Piled by the hands of giants
For godlike kings of, old ;

HORATIUS.

From seagirt Populonia,

Whose sentinels des cry-
Sardinia's snowy mountain-tops
Fringing the southern sky ;

From the proud mart of Pisse,

Queen of the western waves,
Where ride Massilia's triremes

Heavy with fair-haired slaves ;
From where sweet Clanis wanders

Through corn and vines and flowers ;
From where Cortona lifts to heaven

Her diadem of towers.

VI.

Tall are the oaks whose acorns

Drop in dark Auser's rill ;
Fat are the stags that champ the boughs

Of the Ciminian hill ;
Beyond all streams Clitumnus

Is to the herdsman dear ;
Best of all pools the fowler loves

The great Volsinian mere.

45

46 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

VII.
But now no stroke of woodman

Is heard by Auser's rill ;
No hunter tracks the stag's green path

Up the Ciminian hill ;
Unwatched along Clitumnus

Grazes the milk-white steer ;
Unharmed the water-fowl may dip

In the Volsinian mere.

VIII.
The harvests of Arretium,

This year, old men shall reap ;
This year, young boys in Umbro

Shall plunge the struggling sheep ;
And in the vats of Luna,

This year, the must shall foam
Round the white feet of laughing girls,

Whose sires have marched to Rome.

IX.

There be thirty chosen prophets,

The wisest of the land,
Who alway by Lars Porsena

Both morn and evening stand :

HORATIUS.

47

Evening and morn the Thirty-
Have turned the verses o'er,

Traced from the right on linen white
By mighty seers of yore.

And with one voice the Thirty
Have their glad answer given ;

" Go forth, go forth, Lars Porsena ;
Go forth, beloved of Heaven ;

iS LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Go, and return in glory
To Clusium's royal dome ;

And hang round Nurscia's altars
The golden shields of Rome."

XI.

And now hath every city

Sent up her tale of men ;
The foot are fourscore thousand,

The horse are thousands ten.
Before the gates of Sutrium

Is met the great array.
A proud man was Lars Porsena

Upon the trysting day.

XII.

For all the Etruscan armies

Were ranged beneath his eye,
And many a banished Roman,

And many a stout ally ;
And with a mighty following

To join the muster came
The Tusculan Mamilius,

Prince of the Latian name.

HOE AT IUS.

49

XIII.

But by the yellow Tiber

Was tumult and affright :
From all the spacious champaign

To Rome men took their flight.
A mile around the city,

The throng stopped up the ways ;
A fearful sight it was to see

Through two long nights and days.

50

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

XIV.
For aged folk on crutches,

And women great with child,
And mothers sobbing over babes

That clung to them and smiled,
And sick men borne in litters

High on the necks of slaves,
And troops of sun-burned husbandmen

With reaping-hooks and staves.

xv.

And droves of mules and asses

Laden with skins of wine,
And endless flocks of goats and sheep,

And endless herds of kine,
And endless trains of wagons

That creaked beneath the weight
Of corn-sacks and of household goods,

Choked every roaring gate.

52 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

XVII.
To eastward and to westward

Have spread the Tuscan bands ;
Nor house, nor fence, nor dovecote

In Crustumerium stands.
Verbenna down to Ostia

Hath wasted all the plain ;
Astur hath stormed Janiculum,

And the stout guards are slain.

XVIII.
I wis, in all the Senate,

There was no heart so bold,
But sore it ached, and fast it beat,

When that ill news was told.
Forthwith up rose the Consul,

Up rose the Fathers all ;
In haste they girded up their gowns,

And hied them to the wall.

• . XIX.

They held a council standing

Before the. River-Gate ;
Short time was there, ye well may guess,
For musing or debate.

HOKATIUS. 53

Out spake the Consul roundly :

" The bridge must straight go down ;
For, since Janiculum is lost,

Naught else can save the town."

XX.
Just then a scout came flying,

All wild with haste and fear :
" To arms ! to arms ! Sir Consul ;
v Lars Porsena is here^'
On the low hills to westward

The Consul fixed his eye,
And saw the swarthy storm of dust
Rise fast along the sky.

XXI.

And nearer fast and nearer

Doth the red whirlwind come ;
And louder still, and still more loud
From underneath that rolling cloud,
Is heard the trumpet's war-note proud,

The trampling, and the hum.
And plainly and more plainly

Now through the gloom appears,

54 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Far to left and far to right,
In broken gleams of dark-blue light,
The long array of helmets bright,
The long array of spears.

XXII.

And plainly and more plainly,

Above that glimmering line,
Now might ye see the banners

Of twelve fair cities shine ;
But the banner of proud Clusium

Was highest of them all,
The terror of the Umbrian,

The terror of the Gaul.

XXIII.

And plainly and more plainly
Now might the burghers know,

By port and vest, by horse and crest,
Each warlike Lucomo.

There Cilnius of Arretium
On his fleet roa,n was seen ;

And Astur of the four-fold shield,

Girt with the brand none else may wield,

HORATIUS.

Tolumnius with the belt of gold,
And dark Verbenna from the hold
By reedy Thrasymene.

XXIV.

Fast by the royal standard,

O'erlooking all the war,
Lars Porsena of Clusium

Sat in his ivory car.
By the right wheel rode Mamilius,

Prince of the Latian name ;
And by the left false Sextus,

That wrought the deed of shame.

xxv.
But when the face of Sextus

Was seen among the foes,
A yell that rent the firmament

From all the town arose.
On the house-tops was no woman

But spat towards him and hissed ;
No child but screamed out curses,

And shook its little fist.

xxvi.
But the Consul's brow was sad,
And the Consul's speech was low,

55

56 LAYS OF ANCIENT HOME.

And darkly looked he at the wall,
And darkly at the foe.

" Their van will be upon us
Before the bridge goes down ;

And if they once may win the bridge,
What hope to save the town?"

t XXVII.

Then out spake brave Horatius,

The Captain of the gate :
" To every man upon this earth

Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better /

Than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers/

And the temples of his Gods,
-> /

XXVIII.

" And for the tender mother

Who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses

His baby at her breast,
And for the holy maidens

Who feed the eternal flame,
To save them from false Sextus

That wrought the deed of shame ?

HORATIUS.

57

XXIX.
" Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,

With all the speed ye may. ;
I, with two more to help me,

Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand

May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,

And keep the bridge with me ?"

58

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

XXX.
Then out spake Spurius Lartius ;

A Ramnian proud was he : /
" Lo, I will stand at thy right hand,

And keep the bridge with thee."
And out spake strong Herminius ;

Of Titian blood was he :
" I will abide on thy left side,

And keep the bridge with thee."

XXXI.

"Horatius," quoth the Consul,
"As thou sayest, so let it be." f

And straight against that great array
Forth went the dauntless Three.

HOEATIUS.

59

For Romans in Rome's quarrel
Spared neither land nor gold, '

Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old.

XXXII.

Then none was for a party ; I

Then all were for the state :
Then the great man helped the poor,

And the poor man loved the great :
Then lands were fairly portioned : /

Then spoils were fairly sold :
The Romans were like brothers ,

In the brave days of old.

XXXIII.

Now Roman is to Roman

More hateful than a foe,
And the Tribunes beard the high,

And the Fathers grind the low.
As we wax hot in faction,

In battle we wax cold :
Wherefore men fight not as they fought

In the brave days of old.

\

00

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

XXXIV.
Now while the Three were tightening

Their harness on their backs,
The Consul was the foremost man

To take in hand an axe :
And Fathers mixed with Commons

Seized hatchet, bar, and crow,
And smote upon the planks above,

And loosed the props below.

H O R A T I U S.

CI

XXXV.

Meanwhile the Tuscan army,

Right glorious to behold,
Came flashing back the noonday light,
Rank behind rank, like surges bright

Of a broad sea of gold.
Four hundred trumpets sounded

A peal of warlike glee,
As that great host, with measured tread,
And spears advanced, and ensigns spread,
Rolled slowly towards the bridge's head,

Where stood the dauntless Three.

XXXVI.

The Three stood calm and silent

And looked upon the foes,
And a great shout of laughter

From all the vanguard rose :
And forth three chiefs came spurring

Before that deep array ;
To earth they sprang, their swords they drew,
And lifted high their shields, and flew

To win the narrow way ;

H K A T I V S.

XXXVII.
Arams from green Tifernum,
• Lord of the Hill of Vines ;
And Seius, whose eight hundred slaves

Sicken in Ilva's mines ;
And Picus, long to Clusium
Vassal in peace and war,
Who led to fight his Umbrian powers
From that gray crag where, girt with towers,
The fortress of Nequinum lowers
O'er the pale waves of Nar.

XXXVIII.

Stout Lartius hurled down Aunus

Into the stream beneath :
Herminius struck at Seius,

And clove him to the teeth :
At Picus brave Horatius

Darted one fiery thrust ;
And the proud Umbrian' s gilded arms

Clashed in the bloody dust.

XXXIX.

Then Ocnus of Falerii

Rushed on the Roman Three ;

G3

64 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And Lausulus of Urgo,

The rover of the sea ;
And Aruns of Volsinium,'

Who slew the great wild boar,
The great wild boar that had his den
Amidst the reeds of Cosa's fen,
And wasted fields, and slaughtered men,

Along Albinia's shore.

XL.

Herminius smote down Aruns :

Lartius laid Ocnus low :
Right to the heart of Lausulus

Horatius sent a blow.
" Lie there," he cried, " fell pirate !

No more, aghast and pale,
From Ostia's walls the crowd shall mark
The track of thy destroying bark.
No more Campania's hinds shall fly
To woods and caverns when they spy

Thy thrice accursed sail."

XLI.

But now no sound of laughter
Was heard among the foes.

HORATIUS. 65

A wild and wrathful clamour

From all the vanguard rose.
Six spears' lengths from the entrance

Halted that deep array,
And for a space no man came forth

To win the narrow way.

XLII.

But hark ! the cry is Astur :

And lo ! the ranks divide ;
And the great Lord of Luna

Comes with his stately stride.
Upon his ample shoulders

Clangs loud the four-fold shield,
And in his hand he shakes the brand

Which none but he can wield.

XLIII.

He smiled on those bold Eomans

A smile serene and high ;
He eyed the flinching Tuscans,

And scorn was in his eye.
Quoth he, " The she-wolf's litter

Stand savagely at bay :
But will ye dare to follow,

If Astur clears the way ?"

66 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

XLIV.
Then, whirling up his broadsword

With both hands to the height,
He rushed against Horatius,

And smote with all his might.
With shield and blade Horatius

Right deftly turned the blow.
The blow, though turned, came yet too nigh :
It missed his helm, but gashed his thigh :
The Tuscans raised a joyful cry

To see the red blood flow.

XLV.

He reeled, and on Herminius

He leaned one breathing-space ;
Then, like a wild cat mad with wounds,

Sprang right at Astur's face.
Through teeth, and skull, and helmet,

So fierce a thrust he sped,
The good sword stood a hand-breadth out

Behind the Tuscan's head.

XLVI.
And the great Lord of Luna
Fell at that deadly stroke,

JHORATIUS. 67

As falls on Mount Alvernus

A thunder-smitten oak.
Far o'er the crashing forest

The giant arms lie spread ;
And the pale augurs, muttering lew,

Graze on the blasted head.

XLVII.

On Astur's throat Horatius

Right firmly pressed his heel,
And thrice and four times tugged amain,

Ere he wrenched out the steel.
"And see," he cried, "the welcome,

Fair guests, that waits you here !
What noble Lucomo comes next,

To taste our Roman cheer?"

XLVIII.

But at his haughty challenge

A sullen murmur ran,
Mingled of wrath, and shame, and dread,

Along that glittering van.
There lacked not men of prowess,

Nor men of lordly race ;
For all Etruria's noblest

Were round the fatal place.

68 LATS OF ANCIENT EOME.

XLIX.
But all Etruria's noblest

Felt their hearts sink to see
On the earth the bloody corpses,

In the path the dauntless Three :
And, from the ghastly entrance

Where those bold Romans stood,
All shrank, like boys who unaware,
Ranging the woods to start a hare,
Come to the mouth of the dark lair
Where, growling low, a fierce old bear

Lies amidst bones and blood.

L.

Was none who would be foremost

To lead such dire attack ;
But those behind cried "Forward!"

And those before cried " Back !"
And backward now and forward

Wavers the deep array ;
And on the tossing sea of steel,
To and fro the standards reel ;
And the victorious trumpet-peal

Dies fitfully away.

LI.

Yet one man for one moment

Strode out before the crowd ;
Well known was he to all the Three,

And they gave him greeting loud.
"Now welcome, welcome, Sextus !

Now welcome to thy home !
Why dost thou stay, and turn away ?

Here lies the road to Rome."

LII.

Thrice looked he at the city ;
Thrice looked he at the dead ;

70 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And thrice came on in fury,

And thrice turned hack in dread :

And, white with fear and hatred,
Scowled at the narrow way

Where, wallowing in a pool of blood,
The bravest Tuscans lay.

tin.
But meanwhile axe and lever

Have manfully been plied,
And now the bridge hangs tottering

Above the boiling tide.
" Come back, come back, Horatius !"

Loud cried the Fathers all.
" Back, Lartius ! back Herminius !

Back, ere the ruin fall I"

LIV.

Back darted Spurius Lartius ;

Herminius darted back :
And, as they passed, beneath their feet

They felt the timbers crack.
But when they turned their faces,

And on the farther shore
Saw brave Horatius stand alone,

They would have crossed once more.

II R A T I TJ S.
LV.

But with a crash like thunder

Fell every loosened beam,
And, like a dam, the mighty wreck

Lay right athwart the stream :
And a long shout of triumph

Rose from the walls of Rome,
As to the highest turret-tops

Was splashed the yellow foam.

LVI.

And, like a horse unbroken

When first he feels the rein,
The furious river struggled hard,

And tossed his tawny mane,
And burst the curb, and bounded,

Rejoicing to be free,
And whirling down, in fierce career,
Battlement, and plank, and pier,

Rushed headlong to the sea.

LVII.

Alone stood brave Horatius,
But constant still in mind ;

Thrice thirty thousand foes before,
And the broad flood behind.

71

<^~

72

LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

"Down with him !" cried false Sextus,

/

With a smile on his pale face.

"Now yield thee," cried Lars Porsena,

'<

"Now yield thee to our grace."

|

LVIII.

Round turned he, as not deigning

:

Those craven ranks to see ;

Naught spake he to Lars Porsena,

To Sextus naught spake he ; /

But he saw on Palatinus \

The white porch of his home ; /

And he spake to the noble river

That rolls by the towers of Rome.

LIX.

" Oh, Tiber ! Father Tiber !

To whom the Romans pray,

;

' A Roman's life, a Roman's arms,

1

Take thou in charge this day !"

So he spake, and speaking sheathed ),,,.

The good sword by his side,

And with his harness on his back,

Plunged headlong in the tide.

ft

HORATIUS.

73

LX.

No sound of joy or sorrow
Was heard from either bank,
|, But friends and foes in dumb surprise,

•«v:^

■>

'4^> With parted lips and straining eyes, , 1L -— -^ __

■%\ Stood gazing where he sank ;

\\4

74: LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And when above the surges

They saw his crest appear,
All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry,
And even the ranks of Tuscany
Could scarce forbear to cheer.

LXI.

But fiercely ran the current,

Swollen high by months of rain :
And fast his blood was flowing ;

And he was sore in pain,
And heavy with his armour,

And spent with changing blows :
And oft they thought him sinking,

Bu£ still again he rose.

LXII.

Never, I ween, did swimmer,

In such an evil case,
Struggle through such a raging flood

Safe to the landing-place :
But his limbs were borne up bravely

By the brave heart within,
And our good Father Tiber

Bare bravely up his chin. 1

.HORATIUS. 75

LXIII.
" Curse on him !" quoth false Sextus :

" Will not the villain drown ?
But for this stay, ere close of day

We should have sacked the town !"
" Heaven help him !" quoth Lars Porsena,

"And bring him safe to shore ;
For such a gallant feat of arms

Was never seen before."

LXIV.

And now he feels the bottom ;

Now on dry earth he stands ;
Now round him throng the Fathers

To press his gory hands ;

' " Our Ladye bare upp her chinne."

Ballad of Childe Waters.

" Never heavier man and horse
Stemmed a midnight torrent's force ;

Yet, through good heart and Our Lady's grace,
At length he gained the landing-place."

Lay of the Last Minstrel.

76 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And now, with shouts and clapping,
And noise of weeping loud,

He enters through the River-Gate,
Borne by the joyous crowd.

LXV.

They gave him of the corn-land

That was of public right
As much as two strong oxen

Could plough from morn till night ;
And they made a molten image,

And set it up on high,
And there it stands unto this day

To witness if I lie.

LXVI.
It stands in the Comitium,

Plain for all folk to see ;
Horatius in his harness,

Halting upon one knee :
And underneath is written,

In letters all of gold,
How valiantly he kept the bridge

In the brave days of old.

HOEATIUS. 77

LXVII.
And still his name sounds stirring

Unto the men of Rome,
As the trumpet-blast that cries to them

To charge the Volscian home ;/
And wives still pray to Juno

For boys with hearts as bold
As his who kept the bridge so well

In the brave days of old.

LXVIII.

And in the nights of winter,

When the cold north winds blow,
And the long howling of the wolves

Is heard amidst the snow ; /
When round the lonely cottage

Roars loud the tempest's din, /
And the good logs of Algidus

Roar louder yet within ;

LXIX.

When the oldest cask is opened,

And the largest lamp is lit ; /
When the chestnuts glow in the embers,

And the kid turns on the spit ;

78

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

</

/ -

(r
r

When young and old in circle
Around the firebrands close ;

When the girls are weaving baskets,
And the lads are shaping bows ;

LXX.

When the goodman mends his armour,

And trims his helmet's plume ;
When the goodwife's shuttle merrily

Goes flashing through the loom ;
With weeping and with laughter

Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge

In the brave days of old.

THE

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

The following poem is supposed to have been produced about
ninety years after the lay of Horatius. Some persons men-
tioned in the lay of Horatius make their appearance again, and
some appellations and epithets used in the lay of Horatius
have been purposely repeated : for, in an age of ballad-poetry,
it scarcely ever fails to happen, that certain phrases come to
be appropriated to certain men and things, and are regularly
applied to those men and things by every minstrel. Thus
we find, both in the Homeric poems and in Hesiod, /ft?

'HpaxXrjsiTj, -Kspixkbxoq , Ai±tpiyuijei,s, didztopoq 'ApyEifiovrys, tTZTaizuXos &?<»?,

11

82 LAYS OP ANCIENT EOMK

'EUvys &«*' pxo/iow. Thus, too, in our own national songs,
Douglas is almost always the doughty Douglas : England
is merry England : all the gold is red ; and all the ladies are

gay-

The principal distinction between the lay of Horatius and
the lay of the Lake Eegillus is that the former is meant to
be purely Roman, while the latter, though national in its
general spirit, has a slight tincture of Greek learning and of
Greek superstition. The story of the Tarquins, as it has come
down to us, appears to have been compiled from the works
of several popular poets ; and one, at least, of thqse poets
appears to have visited the Greek colonies in Italy, if not
Greece itself, and to have had some acquaintance with the
works of Homer and Herodotus. Many of the most striking
adventures of the house of Tarquin, before Lucretia makes
her appearance, have a Greek character. The Tarquins them-
selves are represented as Corinthian nobles of the great house
of the Bacchiadse, driven from their country by the tyranny of
that Cypselus, the tale of whose strange escape Herodotus has
related with incomparable simplicity and liveliness.* Livy
and Dionysius tell us that, when Tarquin the proud was asked

* Herodotus, v. 92 ; Livy, i. 34 ; Dionysius, iii. 46.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

83

what was the best mode of governing a conquered city, he
replied only by beating down with his staff all the tallest
poppies in his garden.* This is exactly what Herodotus, in
the passage to which reference has already been made, relates
of the counsel given to Periander, the son of Cypselus. The
stratagem by which the town of Gabii is brought under the
power of the Tarquins is, again, obviously copied from Hero-
dotus.f The embassy of the young Tarquins to the oracle at

Delphi, is just such a story as would be told by a poet whose
head was full of the Greek mythology ; and the ambiguous

* Livy, i. 54; Dionysius, iv. 56. f Herodotus, iii. 154; Livy, i. 53.

84

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

answer returned by Apollo is in the exact style of the pro-
phecies which, according to Herodotus, lured Croesus to de-
struction. Then the character of the narrative changes.
From the first mention of Lucretia to the retreat of Porsena
nothing seems to be borrowed from foreign sources. The
villany of Sextus, the suicide of his victim, the revolution, the
death of the sons of Brutus, the defence of the bridge, Mucius

burning his hand,* Cloelia swimming through Tiber, seem

* M. de Pouilly attempted, a hundred and twenty years ago, to prove
that the story of Mucius was of Greek origin ; hut he was signally con-
futed by the Abbe Sallier. See the Memoires de VAcadimie des Inscrip-
tions, vi. 27, 66.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

85

to be all strictly Roman. But when we have done with the
Tuscan war, and enter upon the war with the Latines, we
are again struck by the Greek air of the story. The Battle
of the Lake Regillus is in all respects a Homeric battle, ex-
cept that the combatants ride astride on their horses instead
of driving chariots. The mass of fighting men is hardly men-
tioned. The leaders single each other out and engage hand
to hand. The great object of the warriors on both sides is, as
in the Iliad, to obtain possession of the spoils and bodies of
the slain ; and several circumstances are related which forcibly
remind us of the great slaughter round the corpses of Sarpedon
and Patroclus.

so

LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

jfeN*» ^T&c

<iffilF?OyiS|% dffl)

isN B^

X\ syA^H ^

Yw\ m^wfi^V /y/^M^ li^^^^^^^^^SsLj^

v No— r^rJMJ\ Y\

V/'l "' iVr- -CX^F/i \ 1^. \^^L ^Z/^M/^Wr

^sHr^Qyw^ \ t&> w~~-

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»_ fYyvyrfw; — tji ^XZ^~J~.

J/ ^f£p^

^^^v^^^^^^SriB

HSw^

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g

!w

•^ ^

But there is one circumstance which deserves especial no-
tice. Both the war of Troy and the war of Regillus were
caused by the licentious passions of young princes, who were
therefore peculiarly bound not to be sparing of their own per-
sons in the day of battle. Now the conduct of Sextus at
Regillus, as described by Livy, so exactly resembles that of
Paris, as described at the beginning of the third book of the
Iliad, that it is difficult to believe the resemblance accidental.
Paris appears before the Trojan ranks, defying the bravest
Greek to encounter him :

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 87

Tpioaiv jj.h npo/id^tZ^v ' AXi^avSpoq Oeoeidrjq,

' Apyeiiov itpoxaXiZero Tzdvrag apldToug,

avrlStnv /j.a%lrraaOai in ahf[ dijtorrJTC.

Livy introduces Sextus in a similar manner : " Ferocem juve-
nem Tarquinium, ostentantem se in prima exsulum acie."
Menelaus rushes to meet Paris. A Roman noble, eager for
vengeance, spurs his horse towards Sextus. Both the guilty
princes are instantly terror-stricken :

TSv 3' axj oZv ivo-qoev ' AXiSavdpog Beoecdijg
h Tzpojid'^oiai (pavivTa, xaTSTthjyyj <pikov qrop-
aip d' krapuiv efc lOvoq i^dZezo xrip' aXeetvwv.

" Tarquinius," says Livy, " retro in agmen suorum infenso
cessit hosti." If this be a fortuitous coincidence, it is one of
the most extraordinary in literature.

In the following poem, therefore, images and incidents have
been borrowed, not merely without scruple, but on principle,
from the incomparable battle-pieces of Homer.

The popular belief at Rome, from an early period, seems to
have been that the event of the great day of Regillus, was de-
cided by supernatural agency. Castor and Pollux, it was said,
had fought, armed and mounted, at the head of the legions of
the commonwealth, and had afterwards carried the news of

os LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

the victory with incredible speed to the city. The well in
the Forum at which they had alighted was pointed out. Near
the well rose their ancient temple. A great festival was kept
to their honour on the Ides of Quintilis, supposed to be the
anniversary of the battle ; and on that day sumptuous sacri-
fices were offered to them at the public charge. One spot
on the margin of Lake Regillus was regarded during many
ages with superstitious awe. A mark resembling in shape a
horse's hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this
mark was believed to have been made by one of the celestial
chargers.

How the legend originated cannot now be ascertained ; but
we may easily imagine several ways in which it might have
originated : nor is it at all necessary to suppose, with Julius
Frontinus, that two young men were dressed up by the Dicta-
tor to personate the sons of Leda. It is probable that Livy is
correct when he says that the Roman general, in the hour of
peril, vowed a temple to Castor. If so, nothing could be more
natural than that the multitude should ascribe the victory
to the favour of the Twin Gods. When such was the pre-
vailing sentiment, any man who chose to declare that, in the
midst of the confusion and slaughter, he had seen two godlike
forms on white horses scattering the Latines would find ready

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 89

credence. We know, indeed, that, in modern times, a very
similar story actually found credence among a people much
more civilized than the Romans of the fifth century before
Christ. A chaplain of Cortes, writing about thirty years after
the conquest of Mexico, in an age of printing-presses, libraries,
universities, scholars, logicians, jurists, and statesmen, had
the face to assert that, in one engagement against the Indians,
Saint James had appeared on a gray horse at the head of the
Castilian adventurers. Many of those adventurers were living
when this lie was printed. One of them, honest Bernal Diaz,
wrote an account of the expedition. He had the evidence of
his own senses against the legend ; but he seems to have dis-
trusted even the evidence of his own senses. He says that
he was in the battle, and that he saw a gray horse with a
man on his back, but that the man was, to his thinking,
Francesco de Morla, and not the ever-blessed apostle Saint
James. "Nevertheless," Bernal adds, "it may be that the
person on the gray horse was the glorious apostle Saint James,
and that I, sinner that I am, was unworthy to see him." The
Romans of the age of Cincinnatus were probably quite as
credulous as the Spanish subjects of Charles the Fifth. It is
therefore conceivable that the appearance of Castor and Pollux
may have become an article of faith before the generation

12

90 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

which had fought at Regillus had passed away. Nor could
anything be more natural than that the poets of the next age
should embellish this story, and make the celestial horsemen
bear the tidings of victory to Rome.

Many years after the temple of the Twin Gods had been
built in the Forum, an important addition was made to the
ceremonial by which the state annually testified its gratitude
for their protection. Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius were
elected Censors at a momentous crisis. It had become abso-
lutely necessary that the classification of the citizens should
be revised. On that classification depended the distribution
of political power. Party-spirit ran high; and the republic
seemed to be in danger of falling under the dominion either
of a narrow oligarchy or of an ignorant and headstrong rabble.
Under such circumstances the most illustrious patrician and
the most illustrious plebeian of the age were intrusted with
the office of arbitrating between the angry factions ; and they
performed their arduous task to the satisfaction of all honest
and reasonable men.

One of their reforms was a remodelling of the equestrian
order; and, having effected this reform, they determined to
give to their work a sanction derived from religion. In the
chivalrous societies of modern times, societies which have

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 1

much more than may at first sight appear in common with
the equestrian order of Rome, it has been usual to invoke the
special protection of some Saint, and to observe his day with
peculiar solemnity. Thus the Companions of the Garter wear
the image of Saint George depending from their collars, and
meet, on great occasions, in Saint George's Chapel. Thus,
when Louis the Fourteenth instituted a new order of chivalry,
for the rewarding of military merit, he commended it to the
favour of his own glorified ancestor and patron, and decreed
that all the members of the fraternity should meet at the
royal palace on the Feast of Saint Louis, should attend the
king to chapel, should hear mass, and should subsequently
hold their great annual assembly. There is a considerable
resemblance between this rule of the Order of Saint Louis and
the rule which Fabius and Decius made respecting the Koman
knights. It was ordained that a grand muster and inspection
of the equestrian body should be part of the ceremonial per-
formed, on the anniversary of the battle of Regillus, in ho-
nour of Castor and Pollux, the two equestrian Gods. All the
knights, clad in purple and crowned with olive, were to meet
at a temple of Mars in the suburbs. Thence they were to
ride in state to the Forum, where the temple of the Twins
stood. This pageant was, during several centuries, considered

92 LAYS OP ANCIENT ROME.

as one of the most splendid sights of Eome. In the time of
Dionysius the cavalcade sometimes consisted of five thousand
horsemen, all persons of fair repute and easy fortune.*

There can be no doubt that the Censors who instituted this
august ceremony acted in concert with the Pontiffs to whom,
by the constitution of Rome, the superintendence* of the public
worship belonged ; and it is probable that those high religious
functionaries were, as usual, fortunate enough to find in their
books or traditions some warrant for the innovation.

The following poem is supposed to have been made for this
great occasion. Songs, we know, were chanted at the reli-
gious festivals of Eome from an early period, indeed from so
early a period that some of the sacred verses were popularly
ascribed to Numa, and were utterly unintelligible in the age
of Augustus. In the Second Punic War a great feast was
held in honour of Juno, and a song was simg in her praise.
This song was extant when Livy wrote ; and, though exceed-
ingly rugged and uncouth, seemed to him not wholly destitute
of merit.f A song, as we learn from Horace,| was part of the

* See Livy, ix. 46 ; Val. Max. ii. 2 ; Aurel. Vict. De Yiris Illustribus,
32 ; Dionysius, vi. 13 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. xv. 5. See also the singularly
ingenious chapter in Niebuhr's posthumous volume, Die Censur des Q.
Fabius und P. Decius.

f Livy, xxvii. 37. % Hor. Carmen Seculare.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 93

established ritual at the great Secular Jubilee. It is there-
fore likely that the Censors and Pontiffs, when they had re-
solved to add a grand procession of knights to the other solem-
nities annually performed on the Ides of Quintilis, would call
in the aid of a poet. Such a poet would naturally take for
his subject the Battle of Regillus, the appearance of the Twin
Gods, and the institution of their festival. He would find
abundant materials in the ballads of his predecessors ; and
he would make free use of the scanty stock of Greek learning
which he had himself acquired. He would probably intro-
duce some wise and holy Pontiff enjoining the magnificent
ceremonial which, after a long interval, had at length been
adopted. If the poem succeeded, many persons would commit
it to memory. Parts of it would be sung to the pipe at ban-
quets. It would be peculiarly interesting to the great Post-
humian House, which numbered among its many images that
of the Dictator Aulus, the hero of Regillus. The orator who,
in the following generation, pronounced the funeral panegyric
over the remains of Lucius Posthumius Megellus, thrice Con-
sul, would borrow largely from the lay ; and thus some pas-
sages, much disfigured, would probably find their way into
the chronicles which were afterwards in the hands of Diony-
sius and Livy.

94

LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

Antiquaries differ widely as to the situation of the field of
battle. The opinion of those who suppose that the armies
met near Cornufelle, between Frascati and the Monte Porzio,
is at least plausible, and has been followed in the poem.

As to the details of the battle, it has not been thought de-
sirable to adhere minutely to the accounts which have come
down to us. Those accounts, indeed, differ widely from each
other, and, in all probability, differ as widely from the ancient
poem from which they were originally derived.

It is unnecessary to point out the various imitations of the
Iliad, which have been purposely introduced.

THE

BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS.

A LAY SUNG AT THE FEAST OP CASTOR AND POLLUX ON THE IDES OF QUINTILIS,
IN THE TEAR OF THE CITY CCCCLI,

Ho, trumpets, sound a war-note !

Ho, lictors, clear the way !
The Knights will ride, in all their pride,

Along the streets to-day.
To-day the doors and windows

Are hung with garlands all,
From Castor in the Forum,

To Mars without the wall.

96 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Each Knight is robed in purple,

With olive each is crowned ;
A gallant war-horse under each

Paws haughtily the ground.
While flows the Yellow River,

While stands the Sacred Hill,
The proud Ides of Quintilis

Shall have such honour still.
Gay are the Martian Kalends :

December's Nones are gay :
But the proud Ides, when the squadron rides,

Shall be Rome's whitest day.

n.

Unto the Great Twin Brethren

We keep this solemn feast.
Swift, swift, the Great Twin Brethren

Came spurring from the east.
They came o'er wild Parthenius

Tossing in waves of pine,
O'er Cirrha's dome, o'er Adria's foam,

O'er purple Apennine,
From where with flutes and dances

Their ancient mansion rings,

BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS.

97

In lordly Lacedsemon,

The City of two kings,

To where, by Lake Regillus,

f

Under the Porcian height,

i

i

All in the lands of Tusculum,

!

Was fought the glorious fight.

j

i
i

in.

l

:

Now on the place of slaughter

:

Are cots and sheepfolds seen,

And rows of vines, and fields of wheat,

1

And apple-orchards green :

■

» The swine crush the big acorns

''

That fall from Corne's oaks.

i

Upon the turf by the Fair Fount

i

The reaper's pottage smokes.

i

1
1

The fisher baits his angle ;

1

The hunter twangs his bow ;

j

1
j

Little they think on those strong limbs

1

j

That moulder deep below.

j

Little they think how sternly

That day the trumpets pealed ;

:

How in the slippery swamp of blood

Warrior and war-horse reeled ;

13

98 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

How wolves came with fierce gallop,

And crows on eager wings,
To tear the flesh of captains,

And peck the eyes of kings ;
How thick the dead lay scattered

Under the Porcian height ;
How through the gates of Tusculum

Raved the wild stream of flight ;
And how the Lake Regillus

Bubbled with crimson foam,
What time the Thirty Cities

Came forth to war with Rome.

IV.

But, Roman, when thou standest

Upon that holy ground,
Look thou with heed on the dark rock

That girds the dark lake round.
So shalt thou see a hoof-mark

Stamped deep into the flint :
It was no hoof of mortal steed

That made so strange a dint :
There to the Great Twin Brethren

Vow thou thy vows, and pray

BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS. "

That they, in tempest and in fight,
Will keep thy head alway.

v.
Since last the Great Twin Brethren

Of mortal eyes were seen,
Have years gone by an hundred

And fourscore and thirteen.
That summer a Virginius

Was Consul first in place ;
The second was stout Aulus,

Of the Posthumian race.
The Herald of the Latines

From Gabii came in state :
The Herald of the Latines

Passed through Rome's Eastern Gate :
The Herald of the Latines

Did in our Forum stand ;
And there he did his office,

A sceptre in his hand.

VI.
" Hear, Senators and people
Of the good town of Rome :

100

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

The Thirty Cities charge you
To bring the Tarquins home :

And if ye still be stubborn,
To work the Tarquins wrong,

The Thirty Cities warn you,
Look that your walls be strong.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

101

VII.
Then spake the Consui Aulus,

He spake a bitter jest :
" Once the jays sent a message

Unto the eagle's nest : —
Now yield thou up thine eyrie

Unto the carrion-kite,
Or come forth valiantly, and face

The jays in deadly fight. —
Forth looked in wrath the eagle ;

And carrion-kite and jay,
Soon as they saw his beak and claw,

Fled screaming far away."

102 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

VIII.
The Herald of the Latines

Hath hied him back in state :
The Fathers of the City-
Are met in high debate.
Then spake the elder Consul,

An ancient man and wise,
"Now hearken, Conscript Fathers,

To that which I advise.
In seasons of great peril

'Tis good that one bear sway;
Then choose we a Dictator,

Whom all men shall obey.
Camerium know*s how deeply

The sword of Aulus bites ;
And all our city calls him

The man of seventy fights.
Then let him be Dictator

For six months and no more,
And have a Master of the Knights,

And axes twenty-four."

IX.

So Aulus was Dictator,
The man of seventy fights ;

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 103

He made iEbutius Elva

His Master of the Knights.
On the third morn thereafter,

At dawning of the day,
Did Aulus and iEbutius

Set forth with their array.
Sempronius Atratinus

Was left in charge at home
With boys, and with gray-headed men,

To keep the walls of Rome.
Hard by the Lake Regillus

Our camp was pitched at night :
Eastward a mile the Latines lay,

Under the Porcian height.
Far over hill and valley

Their mighty host was spread ;
And with their thousand watch-fires

The midnight sky was red.

Up rose the golden morning
Over the Porcian height,

The proud Ides of Quintilis
Marked evermore with white.

104 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Not without secret trouble

Our bravest saw the foes ;
For girt by threescore thousand spears

The thirty standards rose.
From every warlike city

That boasts the Latian name,
Foredoomed to dogs and vultures,

That gallant army came ;
From Setia's purple vineyards,
From Norba's ancient wall,
From the white streets of Tusculum,

The proudest town of all ;
From where the Witch's Fortress
O'erhangs the dark-blue seas ;
From the still glassy lake that sleeps

Beneath Aricia's trees —
Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign,
The priest who slew the slayer,

And shall himself be slain ;
From the drear banks of TJfens,

Where flights of marsh-fowl play,
And buffaloes lie wallowing

Through the hot summer's day ;

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 105

From the gigantic watch-towers,

No work of earthly men,
Whence Cora's sentinels o'erlook

The never-ending fen ;
From the Laurentian jungle,

The wild-hog's reedy home ;
From the green steeps whence Anio leaps

In floods of snow-white foam.

xr.

Aricia, Cora, Norba,

Velitrse, with the might
Of Setia and of Tusculum,

Were marshalled on the right :
Their leader was Mamilius,

Prince of the Latian name ;
Upon his head a helmet

Of red gold shone like flame :
High on a gallant charger

Of dark-gray hue he rode ;
Over his gilded armour

A vest of purple flowed,
Woven in the land of sunrise

By Syria's dark-browed daughters,

14

1°6 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And by the sails of Carthage brought
Far o'er the southern waters.

XII.

Lavinium and Laurentum

Had on the left their post,
With all the banners of the marsh,

And banners of the coast.
Their leader was false Sextus,

That wrought the deed of shame :
With restless pace and haggard face

To his last field he came.
Men said he saw strange visions

Which none beside might see ;
And that strange sounds were in his ears

Which none might hear but he.
A woman fair and stately,

But pale as are the dead,
Oft through the watches of the night

Sat spinning by his bed.
And as she plied the distaff,

In a sweet voice and low,
She sang of great old houses,

And fights fought long ago.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS.

107

So spun she, and so sang she,

Until the east was gray,
Then pointed to her bleeding breast,

And shrieked, and fled away.

XIII.
But in the centre thickest

Were ranged the shields of foes,
And from the centre loudest

The cry of battle rose.
There Tibur marched and Pedum

Beneath proud Tarquin's rule,
And Ferentinum of the rock,

And Grabii of the pool.

108 LAYS OF ANCIENT HOME'.

There rode the Volscian succours :

There, in a dark stern ring,
The Roman exiles gathered close

Around the ancient king.
Though white as Mount Soracte,

When winter nights are long,
His beard flowed down o'er mail and belt,

His heart and hand were strong.
Under his hoary eyebrows

Still flashed forth quenchless rage :
And, if the lance shook in his gripe,

'Twas more with hate than age.
Close at his side was Titus

On an Apulian steed,
Titus, the youngest Tarquin,

Too good for such a breed.

XIV.

Now on each side the leaders
Gave signal for the charge ;

And on each side the footmen
Strode on with lance and targe ;

And on each side the horsemen
Struck their spurs deep in gore ;

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 109

And front to front the armies

Met with a mighty roar :
And under that great battle

The earth with blood was red ;
And, like the Pomptine fog at morn,

The dust hung overhead ;
And louder still and louder

Rose from the darkened field
The braying of the war-horns,

The clang of sword and shield,
The rush of squadrons sweeping

Like whirlwinds o'er the plain,
The shouting of the slayers,

And screeching of the slain.

xv.

False Sextus rode out foremost :

His look was high and bold ;
His corslet was of bison's hide,

Plated with steel and gold.
As glares the famished eagle

From the Digentian rock
On a choice lamb that bounds alone

Before Bandusia's flock,

HO LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Herminius glared on Sextus,

And came with eagle speed,
Herminius on black Auster,

Brave champion on brave steed ;
In his right hand the broadsword

That kept the bridge so well,
And on his helm the crown he won

When proud Fidenae fell.
Woe to the maid whose lover

Shall cross his path to-day !
False Sextus saw, and trembled,

And turned and fled away.
As turns, as flies, the woodman

In the Calabrian brake,
When through the reeds gleams the round eye

Of that fell speckled snake ;
So turned, so fled, false Sextus,

And hid him in the rear,
Behind the dark Lavinian ranks,

Bristling with crest and spear.

XVI.

But far to north iEbutius,
The Master of the Knights,

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. HI

Gave Tubero of Norba

To feed the Porcian kites.
Next under those red horse-hoofs

Flaccus of Setia lay ;
Better had he been pruning

Among his elms that day.
Mamilius saw the slaughter,

And tossed his golden crest,
And towards the Master of the Knights

Through the thick battle pressed.
iEbutius smote Mamilius

So fiercely on the shield
That the great lord of Tusculum

Well-nigh rolled on the field.
Mamilius smote iEbutius,

With a good aim and true,
Just where the neck and shoulder join,

And pierced him through and through ;
And brave iEbutius Elva

Fell swooning to the ground :
But a thick wall of bucklers

Encompassed him around.
His clients from the battle

Bare him some little space,

112 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And filled a helm from the dark lake,
And bathed his brow and face ;

And when at last he opened
His swimming eyes to light,

Men say, the earliest word he spake
Was, "Friends, how goes the fight?'

XVII.

But meanwhile in the centre

Great deeds of arms were wrought ;
There Aulus the Dictator

And there Valerius fought.
Aulus with his good broadsword

A bloody passage cleared
To where, amidst the thickest foes,

He saw the long white beard.
Flat lighted that good broadsword

Upon proud Tarquin's head.
He dropped the lance : he dropped the reins :

He fell as fall the dead.
Down Aulus springs to slay him,

With eyes like coals of fire ;
But faster Titus hath sprung down,

And hath bestrode his sire.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

113

Latian captains, Roman knights,
Fast down to earth they spring,

And hand to hand they fight on foot
Around the ancient king.

First Titus gave tall Cseso
A death-wound in the face ;

114 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Tall Caeso was the bravest man

Of the brave Fabian race :
Aulus slew Rex of Gabii,

The priest of Juno's shrine :
Valerius smote down Julius,

Of Rome's great Julian line ;
Julius, who left his mansion

High on the Velian hill,
And through all turns of weal and woe

Followed proud Tarquin still.
Now right across proud Tarquin

A corpse was Julius laid ;
And Titus groaned with rage and grief,

And at Valerius made.
Valerius struck at Titus,

And lopped off half his crest ;
But Titus stabbed Valerius

A span deep in the breast.
Like a mast snapped by the tempest,

Valerius reeled and fell.
Ah ! woe is me for the good house

That loves the people well !
Then shouted loud the Latines ;

And with one rush they bore

BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS.

115

The struggling Romans backward
Three lances' length and more :

And up they took proud Tarquin,
And laid him on a shield,

And four strong yeomen hare him,
Still senseless, from the field.

XVIII.

But fiercer grew the fighting

Around Valerius dead ;
For Titus dragged him by the foot,

And Aulus by the head.

116 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

" On, Latines, on !" quoth Titus,

" See how the rebels fly !"
"Romans, stand firm !" quoth Aulus,
* " And win this fight or die !

They must not give Valerius

To raven and to kite ;
For aye Valerius loathed the wrong,

And aye upheld the right :
And for your wives and babies

In the front rank he fell.
Now play the men for the good house

That loves the people well !"

XIX.

Then tenfold round the body

The roar of battle rose,
Like the roar of a burning forest,

When a strong northwind blows.
Now backward, and now forward,

Rocked furiously the fray,
Till none could see Valerius,

And none wist where he lay.
For shivered arms and ensigns

Were heaped there in a mound,

BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS. n7

And corpses stiff, and dying men

That writhed and gnawed the ground ;

And wounded horses kicking,

And snorting purple foam :

Right well did such a couch befit

A Consular of Rome.

XX.

But north looked the Dictator ;

North looked he long and hard ;

And spake to Caius Cossus,

The Captain of his Guard :

" Caius, of all the Romans

1
Thou hast the keenest sight ;

Say, what through yonder storm of dust

Comes from the Latian right?"

i

XXI.

Then answered Caius Cossus :

" I see an evil sight :

The banner of proud Tusculum

Comes from the Latian right ;

I see the plumed horsemen ;

And far before the rest

1

!

118

1

LAYS OF ANCIENT HOME.

* (

I see the dark-gray charger,

1

i

I see the purple vest ;

i
i

I see the golden helmet

!

That shines far off like flame ;

s

So ever rides Mamilius,

■

Prince of the Latian name."

XXII.

'

" Now hearken, Caius Cossns :

Spring on thy horse's back :

i

Kide as the wolves of Apennine

Were all upon thy track !

Haste to our southward battle ;

And never draw thy rein \

n

Until thou find Herminius,

And bid him come amain."

XXIII.

So Aulus spake, and turned him

Again to that fierce strife ;

And Caius Cossus mounted,

And rode for death and life.

Loud clanged beneath his horse-hoofs

The helmets of the dead,

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. H9

And many a curdling pool of blood

Splashed him from heel to head.
So came he far to southward,

Where fought the Roman host,
Against the banners of the marsh

And banners of the coast.
Like corn before the sickle

The stout Lavinians fell,
Beneath the edge of the true sword

That kept the bridge so well.

XXIV.

" Herminius ! Aulus greets thee ;

He bids thee come with speed,
To help our central battle ;

For sore is there our need.
There wars the youngest Tarquin,

And there the Crest of Flame,
The Tusculan Mamilius,

Prince of the Latian name.
Valerius hath fallen fighting

In front of our array ;
And Aulus of the seventy fields

Alone upholds the day."

120

LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

XXV.

Herminius beat his bosom ;

But never a word he spake.
He clapped his hand on Auster's mane ;

He gave the reins a shake,
Away, away, went Auster,

Like an arrow from the bow :
Black Auster was the fleetest steed

From Aufidus to Po.

XXVI.

Right glad were all the Romans

Who, in that hour of dread,
Against great odds bare up the war

Around Valerius dead,
When from the south the cheering

Rose with a mighty swell ;
" Herminius comes, Herminius,

Who kept the bridge so well !"

XXVII.

Mamilius spied Herminius,
And dashed across the way.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

" Herminius ! I have sought thee
Through many a bloody day.

One of us two, Herminius,
Shall never more go home.

I will lay on for Tusculum,
And lay thou on for Kome !"

XXVIII.

All round them paused the battle,
While met in mortal fray

121

16

1-2 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

The Roman and the Tusculan,

The horses black and gray.
Herminius smote Mamilius

Through breast-plate and through breast ;
And fast flowed out the purple blood

Over the purple vest.
Mamilius smote Herminius

Through head-piece and through head ;
And side by side those chiefs of pride

Together fell down dead.
Down fell they dead together

In a great lake of gore ;
And still stood all who saw them fall

While men might count a score.

XXIX.

Fast, fast, with heels wild spurning,

The dark-gray charger fled ;
He burst through ranks of fighting men :

He sprang o'er heaps of dead.
His bridle far out-streaming,

His flanks all blood and foam,

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

123

He sought the southern mountains,

The mountains of his home.
The pass was steep and rugged,

The wolves they howled and whined ;
But he ran like a whirlwind up the pass,

And he left the wolves behind.
Through many a startled hamlet

Thundered his flying feet :
He rushed through the gate of Tusculum,

He rushed up the long white street ;
He rushed by tower and temple,

And paused not from his race
Till he stood before his master's door

In the stately market-place.

kMi-.Li m ii !■!' ,,liL

liiiiiHiJ \/ii;:;iiSisli!lialJ;lilllli And straightway round him gathered
A pale and trembling crowd,
HI And when they knew him, cries of rage
Brake forth, and wailing loud :
And women rent their tresses

For their great prince's fall ;
And old men girt on their old swords,
And went to man the wall.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

125

C/rtM-

XXX.

But, like a graven image,

Black Auster kept his place,
And ever wistfully he looked

Into his master's face.
The raven-mane that daily,

"With pats and fond caresses,
The young Herminia washed and combed,

And twined in even tresses,

126 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And decked with coloured ribands

From her own gay attire,
Hung sadly o'er her father's corpse

In carnage and in mire.
Forth with a shout sprang Titus,

And seized black Auster's rein.
Then Aulus sware a fearful oath,

And ran at him amain.
" The furies of thy brother

With me and mine abide,
If one of your accursed house

Upon black Auster ride !"
As on an Alpine watch-tower

From heaven comes down the flame,
Full on the neck of Titus

The blade of Aulus came :
And out the red blood spouted,

In a wide arch and tall,
As spouts a fountain in the court

Of some rich Capuan's hall.
The knees of all the Latinesj

Were loosened with dismay,
When dead, on dead Herminius,

The bravest Tarquin lay.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE KEGILLUS. 127

XXXI.

And Aulus the Dictator

Stroked Auster's raven mane,
With heed he looked unto the girths,

With heed unto the rein.
" Now bear me well, black Auster,

Into yon thick array ;
And thou and I will have revenge

For thy good lord this day."

xxxir.

So spake he ; and was buckling

Tighter black Auster's band,
When he was aware of a princely pair

That rode at his right hand.
So like they were, no mortal

Might one from other know :
White as snow their armour was :

Their steeds were white as snow.
Never on earthly anvil

Did such rare armour gleam ;
And never did such gallant steeds

Drink of an earthly stream.

1:28 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

XXXIII.

And all who saw them trembled,

And pale grew every cheek ;
And Aulus the Dictator

Scarce gathered voice to speak.
" Say by what name men call you?

What city is your home ?
And wherefore ride ye in such guise

Before the ranks of Rome?"

xxxiv.

" By many names men call us ;

In many lands we dwell :
Well Samothracia knows us ;

Cyrene knows us well.
Our house in gay Tarentum

Is hung each morn with flowers :
High o'er the masts of Syracuse

Our marble portal towers ;
But by the proud Eurotas

Is our dear native home ;
And for the right we come to fight

Before the ranks of Rome."

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

129

XXXV.

So answered those strange horsemen,

And each couched low his spear ;
And forthwith all the ranks of Rome

Were bold, and of good cheer :
And on the thirty armies

Came wonder and affright,
And Ardea wavered on the left,

And Cora on the right.
"Rome to the charge !" cried Aulus;

" The foe begins to yield !

17

130

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Charge for the hearth of Vesta !

Charge for the Golden Shield !
Let no man stop to plunder,

But slay, and slay, and slay :
The Gods who live for ever

Are on our side to-day."

xxxvi.

Then the fierce trumpet-flourish

From earth to heaven arose,
The kites know well the long stern swell

That bids the Romans close.
Then the good sword of Aulus

AVas lifted up to slay :
Then, like a crag down Apennine,

Rushed Auster through the fray.
But under those strange horsemen

Still thicker lay the slain ;
And after those strange horses

Black Auster toiled in vain.
Behind them Rome's long battle

Came rolling on the foe,
Ensigns dancing wild above,

Blades all in line below.

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLTIS. 131

So comes the Po in flood-time

Upon the Celtic plain :
So comes the squall, blacker than night,

Upon the Adrian main.
Now, by our Sire Quirinus,

It was a goodly sight
To see the thirty standards

Swept down the tide of flight.
So flies the spray of Adria

When the black squall doth blow ;
So corn-sheaves in the flood-time

Spin down the whirling Po.
False Sextus to the mountains

Turned first his horse's head ;
And fast fled Ferentinum,

And fast Lanuvium fled.
The horsemen of N omentum

Spurred hard out of the fray ;
The footmen of Velitrse

Threw shield and spear away.
And underfoot was trampled,

Amidst the mud and gore,
The banner of proud Tusculum,

That never stooped before.

132

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And down went Flavius Faustus,

Who led his stately ranks
From where the apple blossoms wave

On Anio's echoing hanks,
And Tullus of Arpinum,

Chief of the Volscian aids,
And Metius with the long fair curls,

The love of Anxur's maids,
And the white head of Vulso,

The great Arician seer,

BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS. 133

And Nepos of Laurentum,

The hunter of the deer ;
And in the back false Sextus

Felt the good Roman steel,
And wriggling in the dust he died,

Like a worm beneath the wheel :
And fliers and pursuers

Were mingled in a mass ;
And far away the battle

Went roaring through the pass.

XXXVII.

Sempronius Atratinus

Sate in the Eastern Gate,
Beside him were three Fathers,

Each in his chair of state ;
Fabius, whose nine stout grandsons

That day were in the field,
And Manlius, eldest of the Twelve

Who keep the Golden Shield ;
And Sergius, the High Pontiff,

For wisdom far renowned ;
In all Etruria's colleges

Was no such Pontiff found.

134

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And all around the portal,
And high above the wall,

Stood a great throng of people,
But sad and silent all ;

Young lads, and stooping elders

*

That might not bear the mail,

Matrons with lips that quivered,

And maids with faces pale.

Since the first gleam of daylight,

Sempronius had not ceased

To listen for the rushing

Of horse-hoofs from the east.

The mist of eve was rising,

i

The sun was hastening down,

When he was aware of a princely pair

Fast pricking towards the town.

i

So like they were, man never

|

Saw twins so like before ;

i

Red with gore their armour was,

i
I

Their steeds were red with gore.

i

XXXVIII.

" Hail to the great Asylum !

Hail to the hill-tops seven !

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

135

Hail to the fire that burns for aye,
And the shield that fell from heaven !

This day, by Lake Regillus,
Under the Porcian height,

All in the lands of Tusculum
Was fought a glorious fight.

136

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

To-morrow your Dictator

Shall bring in triumph home

The spoils of thirty cities

!

To deck the shrines of Rome !"

•

XXXIX.

Then burst from that great concourse

A shout that shook the towers,

And some ran north, and some ran south,

Crying, " The day is ours !"

But on rode these strange horsemen,

With slow and lordly pace ;

And none who saw their bearing

Durst ask their name or race.

On rode they to the Forum,

While laurel-boughs and flowers,

From house-tops and from windows,

Fell on their crests in showers.

When they drew nigh to Vesta,

They vaulted down amain,

And washed their horses in the well

That springs by Vesta's fane.

And straight again they mounted,

And rode to Vesta's door ;

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

Then, like a blast, away they passed,
And no man saw them more.

137

XL.

And all the people trembled,

And pale grew every cheek ;
And Sergius the High Pontiff

Alone found voice to speak :
" The Gods who live for ever

Have fought for Rome to-day !
These be the Great Twin Brethren

To whom the Dorians pray.

18

138 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Back comes the Chief in triumph,

Who, in the hour of fight,
Hath seen the Great Twin Brethren

In harness on his right.
Safe comes the ship to haven,

Through billows and through gales,
If once the Great Twin Brethren

Sit shining on the sails.
Wherefore they washed their horses

In Vesta's holy well,
Wherefore they rode to Vesta's door,

I know, but may not tell.
Here, hard by Vesta's temple,

Build we a stately dome
Unto the Great Twin Brethren

Who fought so well for Rome.
And when the months returning

Bring back this day of fight,
The proud Ides of Quintilis,

Marked evermore with white,
Unto the Great Twin Brethren

Let all the people throng,
With chaplets and with offerings,

With music and with song ;

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

139

And let the doors and windows

Be hung with garlands all,
And let the Knights be summoned

To Mars without the wall :
Thence let them ride in purple

With joyous trumpet-sound,
Each mounted on his war-horse,

And each with olive crowned ;
And pass in solemn order

Before the sacred dome,
Where dwell the Great Twin Brethren

Who fought so well for Rome."

ViRCiyv/A

| l "l ! |I I J |l .l l |,iNi-|. ' ^r.. 1 !i.' l l ) l iliJl.i l ') I Mi ' l 'l | l i"^ l ^ f'' M l il' l

VIRGINIA.

A collection consisting exclusively of war-songs would give
an imperfect, or rather an erroneous, notion of the spirit of
the old Latin ballads. The Patricians, during more than a
century after the expulsion of the Kings, held all the high
military commands. A Plebeian, even though, like Lucius
Siccius, he were distinguished by his valour and knowledge
of war, could serve only in subordinate posts. A minstrel,
therefore, who wished to celebrate the early triumphs of his
country, could hardly take any but Patricians for his heroes.
The warriors who are mentioned in the two preceding lays,
Horatius, Lartius, Herminius, Aulus Posthumius, iEbutius
Elva, Sempronius Atratinus, Valerius Poplicola, were all
members of the dominant order ; and a poet who was singing
their praises, whatever his own political opinions might be,
would naturally abstain from insulting the class to which they

144 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

belonged, and from reflecting on the system which had placed
such men at the head of the legions of the Commonwealth.

But there was a class of compositions in which the great
families were by no means so courteously treated. No parts
of early Roman history are richer with poetical colouring than
those which relate to the long contest between the privileged
houses and the commonalty. The population of Rome was,
from a very early period, divided into hereditary castes,
which, indeed, readily united to repel foreign enemies, but
which regarded each other, during many years, with bitter
animosity. Between those castes there was a barrier hardly
less strong than that which, at Venice, parted the members
of the Great Council from their countrymen. In some re-
spects, indeed, the line which separated an Icilius or a Duilius
from a Posthumius or a Fabius was even more deeply marked
than that which separated the rower of a gondola from a Con-
tarini or a Morosini. At Venice the distinction was merely
civil. At Rome it was both civil and religious. Among the
grievances under which the Plebeians suffered, three were felt
as peculiarly severe. They were excluded from the highest
magistracies ; they were excluded from all share in the public
lands j and they were ground down to the dust by partial
and barbarous legislation touching pecuniary contracts. The

VIRGINIA. 145

ruling class in Rome was a monied class; and it made and
administered the laws with a view solely to its own interest.
Thus the relation between lender and borrower was mixed
up with the relation between sovereign and subject. The
great men held a large portion of the community in depen-
dence by means of advances at enormous usury. The law of
debt, framed by creditors, and for the protection of creditors,
was the most horrible that has ever been known among
men. The liberty, and even the life, of the insolvent were
at the mercy of the Patrician money-lenders. Children often
became slaves in consequence of the misfortune of their pa-
rents. The debtor was imprisoned, not in a public gaol under
the care of impartial public functionaries, but in a private
workhouse belonging to the creditor. Frightful stories were
told respecting these dungeons. It was said that torture
and brutal violation were common ; that tight stocks, heavy
chains, scanty measures of food, were used to punish wretches
guilty of nothing but poverty ; and that brave soldiers whose
breasts were covered with honourable scars, were often marked
still more deeply on the back by the scourges of high-born
usurers.

The Plebeians were, however, not wholly without constitu-
tional rights. From an early period they had been admitted

19

146 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

to some share of political power. They were enrolled each in
his century, and were allowed a share, considerable though
not proportioned to their numerical strength, in the disposal
of those high dignities from which they were themselves ex-
cluded. Thus their position bore some resemblance to that
of the Irish Catholics during the interval between the year
1792 and the year 1829. The Plebeians had also the privi-
lege of annually appointing officers, named Tribunes, who had
no active share in the government of the Commonwealth, but
who, by degrees, acquired a power formidable even to the
ablest and most resolute Consuls and Dictators. The person
of the Tribune was inviolable ; and, though he could directly
effect little, he could obstruct everything.

During more than a century after the institution of the
Tribuneship, the Commons struggled manfully for the removal
of the grievances under which they laboured ; and, in spite of
many checks and reverses, succeeded in wringing concession
after concession from the stubborn aristocracy. At length,
in the year of the city 378, both parties mustered their whole
strength for their last and most desperate conflict. The po-
pular and active Tribune, Caius Licinius, proposed the three
memorable laws which are called by his name, and which
were intended to redress the three great evils of which the

VIRGINIA. 147

Plebeians complained. He was supported, with eminent abi-
lity and firmness, by his colleague, Lucius Sextius. The
struggle appears to have been the fiercest that ever in any
community terminated without an appeal to arms. If such a
contest had raged in any Greek city, the streets would have
run with blood. But, even in the paroxysms of faction, the
Roman retained his gravity, his respect for law, and his ten-
derness for the lives of his fellow-citizens. Year after year Li-
cinius and Sextius were re-elected Tribunes. Year after year,
if the narrative which has come down to us is to be trusted,
they continued to exert, to the full extent, their power of
stopping the whole machine of government. No curule ma-
gistrates could be chosen ; no military muster could be held.
We know too little of the state of Rome in those days to be
able to conjecture how, during that long anarchy, the peace
was kept, and ordinary justice administered between man and
man. The animosity of both parties rose to the greatest
height. The excitement, we may well suppose, would have
been peculiarly intense at the annual election of Tribunes.
On such occasions there can be little doubt that the great
families did all that could be done, by threats and caresses,
to break the union of the Plebeians. That union, however,
proved indissoluble. At length the good cause triumphed.

148 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

The Licinian laws were carried. Lucius Sextius was the first
Plebeian Consul, Caius Licinius the third.

The results of this great change were singularly happy and
glorious. Two centuries of prosperity, harmony, and victory
followed the reconciliation of the orders. Men who remem-
bered Rome engaged in waging petty wars almost within sight
of the Capitol lived to see her the mistress of Italy. While
the disabilities of the Plebeians continued, she was scarcely
able to maintain her ground against the Volscians and Her-
nicans. When those disabilities were removed, she rapidly
became more than a match for Carthage and Macedon.

During the great Licinian contest the Plebeian poets were,
doubtless, not silent. Even in modern times songs have been
by no means without influence on public affairs ; and we may
therefore infer that, in a society where printing was unknown,
and where books were rare, a pathetic or humorous party-
ballad must have produced effects such as we can but faintly
conceive. It is certain that satirical poems were common at
Rome from a very early period. The rustics, who lived at a
distance from the seat of government, and took little part in
the strife of factions, gave vent to their petty local animosities
in coarse Fescennine verse. The lampoons of the city were
doubtless of a higher order ; and their sting was early felt by

VIRGINIA. 149

the nobility. For in the Twelve Tables, long before tbe time
of tbe Licinian laws, a severe punishment was denounced
against the citizen who should compose or recite verses re-
flecting on another.* Satire is, indeed, the only sort of com-
position in which the Latin poets, whose works have come
down to us, were not mere imitators of foreign models ; and it
is therefore the only sort of composition in which they have
never been rivalled. It was not, like their tragedy, their
comedy, their epic and lyric poetry, a hothouse plant which,
in return for assiduous and skilful culture, gave only scanty
and sickly fruits. It was hardy and full of sap; and in all
the various juices which it yielded might be distinguished the
flavour of the Ausonian soil. " Satire," said Quinctilian, with
just pride, "is all our own." Satire sprang, in truth, natu-
rally from the constitution of the Roman government and
from the spirit of the Roman people ; and, though at length
subjected to metrical rules derived from Greece, retained to
the last an essentially Roman character. Lucilius was the
earliest satirist whose works were held in esteem under the

* Cicero justly infers from this law that there had been early Latin
poets whose works had been lost before his time. " Quamquani id qui-
dem etiam xii tabulae declarant, condi jam turn solitum esse carmen,
quod ne liceret fieri ad alterius injuriam lege sanxerunt." — Tusc. iv. 2.

150 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROM K.

Caesars. But, many years before Lucilius was born, Naevius
had been flung into a dungeon, and guarded there with cir-
cumstances of unusual rigour, on account of the bitter lines
in which he had attacked the great Caecilian family.* The
genius and spirit of the Roman satirists survived the liberty
of their country, and were not extinguished by the cruel
despotism of the Julian and Flavian Emperors. The great
poet who told the story of Domitian's turbot was the legiti-
mate successor of those forgotten minstrels whose songs ani-
mated the factions of the infant Republic.

Those minstrels, as Niebuhr has remarked, appear to have
generally taken the popular side. We can hardly be mis-
taken in supposing that, at the great crisis of the civil con-
flict, they employed themselves in versifying all the most
powerful and virulent speeches of the Tribunes, and in heap-
ing abuse on the leaders of the aristocracy. Every personal
defect, every domestic scandal, every tradition dishonourable
to a noble house, would be sought out, brought into notice,
and exaggerated. The illustrious head of the aristocratical
party, Marcus Furius Camillus, might perhaps be, in some
measure, protected by his venerable age and by the memory of

* Plautus, Miles Gloriosus. Aulus Gellius, iii. 3.

VIEGINIA. 151

his great services to the State. But Appius Claudius Crassus
enjoyed no such immunity. He was descended from a long
line of ancestors distinguished by their haughty demeanour,
and by the inflexibility with which they had withstood all
the demands of the Plebeian order. While the political con-
duct and the deportment of the Claudian nobles drew upon
them the fiercest public hatred, they were accused of wanting,
if any credit is due to the early history of Borne, a class of
qualities which, in a military Commonwealth, is sufficient to
cover a multitude of offences. The chiefs of the family appear
to have been eloquent, versed in civil business, and learned
after the fashion of their age ; but in war they were not dis-
tinguished by skill or valour. Some of them, as if conscious
where their weakness lay, had, when filling the highest ma-
gistracies, taken internal administration as their department
of public business, and left the military command to their col-
leagues.* One of them had been intrusted with an army, and
had failed ignominiously.f None of them had been honoured
with a triumph. None of them had achieved any martial
exploit, such as those by which Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus,
Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, Aulus Cornelius Cossus, and,

* In the years of the city 260, 304, and 330.
f In the year of the city 282.

152 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

above all, the great Camillus, had extorted the reluctant
esteem of the multitude. During the Licinian conflict, Ap-
pius Claudius Crassus signalized himself by the ability and
severity with which he harangued against the two great agi-
tators. He would naturally, therefore, be the favourite mark
of the Plebeian satirists ; nor would they have been at a loss
to find a point on which he was open to attack.

His grandfather, called, like himself, Appius Claudius, had
left a name as much detested as that of Sextus Tarquinius.
This elder Appius had been Consul more than seventy years
before the introduction of the Licinian laws. By availing
himself of a singular crisis in public feeling, he had obtained
the consent of the Commons to the abolition of the Tribune-
ship, and had been the chief of that Council of Ten to which
the whole direction of the State had been committed. In a
few months his administration had become universally odious.
It had been swept away by an irresistible outbreak of popular
fury; and its memory was still held in abhorrence by the
whole city. The immediate cause of the downfall of this exe-
crable government was said to have been an attempt made by
Appius Claudius upon the chastity of a beautiful young girl of
humble birth. The story ran that the Decemvir, unable to
succeed by bribes and solicitations, resorted to an outrageous

VIRGINIA. 153

act of tyranny. A vile dependent of the Claudian house laid
claim to the damsel as his slave. The cause was brought
before the tribunal of Appius. The wicked magistrate, in
defiance of the clearest proofs, gave judgment for the claimant.
But the girl's father, a brave soldier, saved her from servitude
and dishonour by stabbing her to the heart in the sight of the
whole Forum. That blow was the signal for a general explo-
sion. Camp and city rose at once ; the Ten were pulled down ;
the Tribuneship was re-established; and Appius escaped the
hands of the executioner only by a voluntary death.

It can hardly be doubted that a story so admirably adapted
to the purposes both of the poet and of the demagogue would
be eagerly seized upon by minstrels burning with hatred
against the Patrician order, against the Claudian house, and
especially against the grandson and namesake of the infamous
Decemvir.

In order that the reader may judge fairly of these frag-
ments of the lay of Virginia, he must imagine himself a Ple-
beian who has just voted for the re-election of Sextius and
Licinius. All the power of the Patricians has been exerted to
throw out the two great champions of the Commons. Every
Posthumius, iEmilius, and Cornelius has used his influence to
the utmost. Debtors have been let out of the workhouses on

154 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

condition oi voting against the men of the people; clients
have been posted to hiss and interrupt the favourite candi-
dates : Appius Claudius Crassus has spoken with more than
his usual eloquence and asperity : all has been in vain ; Lici-
nius and Sextius have a fifth time carried all the tribes : work
is suspended : the booths are closed : the Plebeians bear on
their shoulders the two champions of liberty through the
Forum. Just at this moment it is announced that a popular
poet, a zealous adherent of the Tribunes, has made a new
song which will cut the Claudian nobles to the heart. The
crowd gathers round him, and calls on him to recite it. He
takes his stand on the spot where, according to tradition,
Virginia, more than seventy years ago, was seized by the
pander of Appius, and he begins his story.

LVCRET1A.

VIRGINIA.

PRAGMEKTS OP A LAY SUNG IN THE FORUM ON THE DAT WHEREON LUCIUS SEXTIUS SEX-
TINUS LATERANUS AND CAIUS LIOINIUS CALTUS STOLO WERE ELECTED TRIBUNES OF
THE COMMONS THE FIFTH TIME, IN THE TEAR OF THE CITT CCCLXXXII.

Ye good men of the Commons, with loving hearts and true,
Who stand by the bold Tribunes that still have stood by you,
Come, make a circle round me, and mark my tale with care,
A tale of what Rome once hath borne, of what Rome yet may bear.

158

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

This is no Grecian fable, of fountains running wine,

Of maids with snaky tresses, or sailors turned to swine.

Here, in this very Forum, under the noonday sun,

In sight of all the people, the bloody deed was done.

Old men still creep among us who saw that fearful day,

Just seventy years and seven ago, when the wicked Ten bare sway.

Of all the wicked Ten still the names are held accursed,
And of all the wicked Ten Appius Claudius was the worst.
He stalked along the Forum like King Tarquin in his pride :
Twelve axes waited on him, six marching on a side ;
The townsmen shrank to right and left, and eyed askance with fear
His lowering brow, his curling mouth, which alway seemed to sneer :
That brow of hate, that mouth of scorn, marks all the kindred still ;
For never was there Claudius yet but wished the Commons ill :
Nor lacks he fit attendance ; for close behind his heels,
With outstretched chin and crouching pace, the client Marcus steals,
His loins girt up to run with speed, be the errand what it may,
And the smile flickering on his cheek, for aught his lord may say.
Such varlets pimp and jest for hire among the lying Greeks :
Such varlets still are paid to hoot when brave Licinius speaks.
"Where'er ye shed the honey, the buzzing flies will crowd ;
Where'er ye fling the carrion, the raven's croak is loud ;

VIRGINIA.

159

Where'er down Tiber garbage floats, the greedy pike ye see ;
And wheresoe'er such lord is found, such client still will be.

Just then, as through one cloudless chink in a black stormy sky
Shines out the dewy morning-star, a fair young girl came by.
With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm,
Home she went bounding from the school, nor dreamed of shame or harm ;
And past those dreaded axes she innocently ran,

With bright, frank brow that had not learned to blush at gaze of man ;
And up the Sacred Street she turned, and as she danced along,
She warbled gaily to herself lines of the good old song,
How for a sport the princes came spurring from the camp,
And found Lucrece, combing the fleece, under the midnight lamp.

160 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

The maiden sang as sings the lark, when up he darts his flight,

From his nest in the green April corn, to meet the morning light ;

And Appius heard her sweet young voice, and saw her sweet young face,

And loved her with the accursed love of his accursed race,

And all along the Forum, and up the Sacred Street,

His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet.

Over the Alban mountains the light of morning broke ;
From all the roofs of the Seven Hills curled the thin wreaths of smoke :
The city gates were opened ; the Forum, all alive,
With buyers and with sellers was humming like a hive ;
Blithely on 'brass and timber the craftsman's stroke was ringing,
And blithely o'er her panniers the market-girl was singing,
And blithely young Virginia came smiling from her home :
Ah ! woe for young Virginia, the sweetest maid in Rome !
With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm.
Forth she went bounding to the school, nor dreamed of shame or harm.
She crossed the Forum shining with stalls in alleys gay,
And just had reached the very spot whereon I stand this day,
When up the varlet Marcus came ; not such as when erewhile
He crouched behind his patron's heels with the true client smile :
He came with lowering forehead, swollen features, and clenched fist,
And strode across Virginia's path, and caught her by the wrist.

VIRGINIA. 161

Hard strove the frighted maiden, and screamed -with look aghast ;

And at her scream from right and left the folk came running fast ;

The money-changer Crispus, with his thin silver hairs,

And Hanno from the stately booth glittering with Punic wares,

And the strong smith Mursena, grasping a half-forged brand,

And Volero the flesher, his cleaver in his hand.

All came in wrath and wonder ; for all knew that fair child ;

And, as she passed them twice a day, all kissed their hands and

smiled ;
And the strong smith Mursena gave Marcus such a blow,
The caitiff reeled three paces back, and let the maiden go.
Yet glared he fiercely round him, and growled in harsh, fell tone,
" She's mine, and I will have her : I seek but for mine own :
She is my slave, born in my house, and stolen away and sold,
The year of the sore sickness, ere she was twelve hours old.
'Twas in the sad September, the month of wail and fright,
Two augurs were borne forth that morn; the Consul died ere night.
I wait on Appius Claudius ; I waited on his sire :
Let him who works the client wrong beware the patron's ire !"

So spake the varlet Marcus ; and dread and silence came
On all the people at the sound of the great Claudian name.
For then there was no Tribune to speak the word of might,
Which makes the rich man tremble, and guards the poor man's right.

21

162

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

There was no brave Licinius, no honest Sextius then ;

But all the city, in great fear, obeyed the wicked Ten.

Yet ere the varlet Marcus again might seize the maid,

Who clung tight to Mursena's skirt, and sobbed and shrieked for aid,

Forth through the throng of gazers the young Icilius pressed,

And stamped his foot, and rent his gown, and smote upon his breast,

And sprang upon that column, by many a minstrel sung,

Whereon three mouldering helmets, three rusting swords are hung,

And beckoned to the people, and in bold voice and clear

Poured thick and fast the burning words which tyrants quake to hear.

" Now, by your children's cradles, now, by your fathers' graves,
Be men to-day, Quirites, or be for ever slaves !

VIRGINIA. 163

For this did Servius give us laws ? For this did Lucrece bleed ?

For this was the great vengeance wrought on Tarquin's evil seed ?

For this did those false sons make red the axes of their sire ?

For this did Scaevola's right hand hiss in the Tuscan fire ?

Shall the vile fox-earth awe the race that stormed the lion's den ?

Shall we, who could not brook one lord, crouch to the wicked Ten ?

Oh for that ancient spirit which curbed the Senate's will !

Oh for the' tents which in old time whitened the Sacred Hill !

In those brave days our fathers stood firmly side by side ;

They faced the Marcian fury ; they tamed the Fabian pride :

They drove the fiercest Quinctius an outcast forth from Rome ;

They sent the haughtiest Claudius with shivered fasces home.

But what their care bequeathed us our madness flung away :

All the ripe fruit of threescore years was blighted in' a day.

Exult, ye proud Patricians ! The hard-fought fight is o'er.

We strove for honours — 'twas in vain : for freedom — 'tis no more.

No crier to the polling summons the eager throng ;

No Tribune breathes the word of might that guards the weak from wrong.

Our very hearts, that were so high, sink down beneath your will.

Riches, and lands, and power, and state — ye have them : — keep them

still.
Still keep the holy fillets ; still keep the purple gown,
The axes, and the curule chair, the car, and laurel crown :
Still press us for your cohorts, and, when the fight is done,
Still fill your garners from the soil which our good swords have won.

164 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Still, like a spreading ulcer, which leech-craft may not cure,

Let your foul usance eat away the substance of the poor.

Still let your haggard debtors bear all their fathers bore ;

Still let your dens of torment be noisome as of yore ;

No fire when Tiber freezes ; no air in dog-star heat ;

And store of rods for free-born backs, and holes for free-born feet.

Heap heavier still the fetters ; bar closer still the grate ;

Patient as sheep we yield us up unto your cruel hate.

But by the Shades beneath us, and by the Gods above,

Add not unto your cruel hate your yet more cruel love !

Have ye not graceful ladies, whose spotless lineage springs

From Consuls and High Pontiffs, and ancient Alban kings ?

Ladies, who deign not on our paths to set their tender feet,

Who from their cars look down with scorn upon the wondering street,

"Who in Corinthian mirrors their own proud smiles behold,

And breathe of Capuan odours, and shine with Spanish gold ?

Then leave the poor Plebeian his single tie to life —

The sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister, and of wife,

The gentle speech, the balm for all that his vexed soul endures,

The kiss, in which he half forgets even such a yoke as yours.

Still let the maiden's beauty swell the father's breast with pride ;

Still let the bridegroom's arms infold an unpolluted bride.

Spare us the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame,

That turns the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to flame,

VIRGINIA.

165

Lest, when our latest hope is fled, ye taste of our despair,

And learn by proof, in some wild hour, how much the wretched dare."

*******

Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside,
To where the reeking shambles stood, piled up with horn and hide,
Close to yon low dark archway, where, in a crimson flood,
Leaps down to the great sewer the gurgling stream of blood.
Hard by, a flesher on a block had laid his whittle down :
Virginius caught the whittle up, and hid it in his gown.
And then his eyes grew very dim, and his throat began to swell,
And in a hoarse changed voice he spake, " Farewell, sweet child !
Farewell !

166

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Oli ! how I loved my darling ! Though stern I sometimes be,

To. thee, thou know'st, I was not so. Who could be so to thee ?

And how my darling loved me ! How glad she was to hear

My footstep on the threshold when I came back last year !

And how she danced with pleasure to see my civic crown,

And took my sword and hung it up, and brought me forth my gown !

Now, all those things are over — yes, all thy pretty ways,

Thy needlework, thy prattle, thy snatches of old lays ;

And none will grieve when I go forth, or smile when I return,

Or watch beside the old man's bed, or weep upon his urn.

VIRGINIA.

167

The house that was the happiest within the Roman walls,

The house that envied not the wealth of Capua's marble halls,

i
Now, for the brightness of thy smile, must have eternal gloom,

And for the music of thy voice, the silence of the tomb.

The time is come. See how he points his eager hand this way !

See how his eyes gloat on thy grief, like a kite's upon the prey !

With all his wit, he little deems, that, spurned, betrayed, bereft,

Thy father hath in his despair one fearful refuge left.

He little deems that in this hand I clutch- what still can save

Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows, the portion of the slave ;

168 LAYS OP ANCIENT EOME.

Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt and blow —

Foul outrage which thou knowest not, which thou shalt never know.

Then clasp me round the neck once more, and give me one more kiss ;

And now, mine own dear little girl, there is no way but this."

With that he lifted high the steel, and smote her in the side,

And in her blood she sank to earth, and with one sob she died.

Then, for a little moment, all people held their breath ;
And through the crowded Forum was stillness as of death ;
And in another moment brake forth from one and all
A cry as if the Volscians were coming o'er the wall.
Some with averted faces shrieking fled home amain ;
Some ran to call a leech ; and some ran to lift the slain ;
Some felt her lips and little wrist, if life might there be found ; , *
And some tore up their garments fast, and strove to stanch the wound.
In vain they ran, and felt, and stanched ; for never truer blow
That good right arm had dealt in fight against a Volscian foe.

When Appius Claudius saw that deed, he shuddered and sank down,
And hid his face some little space with the corner of his gown,
Till, with white lips and bloodshot eyes, Virginius tottered nigh,
And stood before the judgment-seat, and held the knife on high.
" Oh ! dwellers in the nether gloom, avengers of the slain,
By this dear blood I cry to you, do right between us twain ;

And even as Appius Claudius hath dealt by me and mine,

Deal you by Appius Claudius and all the Claudian line !"

So spake the slayer of his child, and turned, and went his way ;

But first he cast one haggard glance to where the body lay,

And writhed, and groaned a fearful groan, and then, with steadfast feet,

Strode right across the market-place unto the Sacred Street.

Then up sprang Appius Claudius : " Stop him ; alive or dead !
Ten thousand pounds of copper to the man who brings his head."

170 LAYS OP ANCIENT ROME.

He looked upon his clients ; but none' would work his will.

He looked upon his lictors ; but they trembled, and stood still.

And, as Virginius through the press his way in silence cleft,

Ever the mighty multitude fell back to right and left.

And he hath passed in safety unto his woeful home,

And there ta'en horse to tell the camp what deeds are done in Rome.

By this the flood of people was swollen from every side,
And streets and porches round were filled with that o'erflowing tide ;
And close around the body gathered a little train
Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain.
They brought a bier, and hung it with many a cypress crown,
And gently they uplifted her, and gently laid her down.
The face of Appius Claudius wore the Claudian scowl and sneer,
And in the Claudian note he cried, " What doth this rabble here ?
Have they no crafts to mind at home, that hitherward they stray ?
Ho ! lictors, clear the market-place, and fetch the corpse away !"
The voice of grief and fury till then had not been loud ;
But a deep sullen murmur wandered among the crowd,
Like the moaning noise that goes before the whirlwind on the deep,
Or the growl of a fierce watch-dog but half aroused from sleep.
But when the lictors at that word, tall yeomen all and strong,
Each with his axe and sheaf of twigs, went down into the throng,

VIRGINIA. 171

Those old men say, who saw that day of sorrow and of sin,

That in the Roman forum was never such a din.

The wailing, hooting, cursing, the howls of grief and hate,

Were heard beyond the Pincian Hill, beyond the Latin Gate.

But close around the body, where stood the little train

Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain,

No cries were there, but teeth set fast, low whispers, and black frowns,

And breaking up of benches, and girding up of gowns.

'Twas well the lictors might not pierce to where the maiden lay,

Else surely had they been all twelve torn limb from limb that day.

Right glad they were to struggle back, blood streaming from their heads,

With axes all in splinters, and raiment all in shreds.

Then Appius Claudius gnawed his lip, and the blood left his cheek ;

And thrice he beckoned with his hand, and thrice he strove to speak ;

And thrice the tossing Forum set up a frightful yell ;

" See, see, thou dog ! what thou hast done ; and hide thy shame in hell !

Thou that wouldst make our maidens slaves must first make slaves of

men.
Tribunes ! Hurrah for Tribunes ! Down with the wicked Ten !"
And straightway, thick as hailstones, came whizzing through the air
Pebbles, and bricks, and potsherds, all round the curule chair :
And upon Appius Claudius great fear and trembling came ;
For never was a Claudius yet brave against aught but shame.
Though the great houses love us not, we own, to do them right,
That the great houses^ all save one, have borne them well in fight.

172

LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

Still Caius of Corioli, his triumphs, and his wrongs,

His vengeance, and his mercy, live in our camp-fire songs.

Beneath the yoke of Furius oft have Gaul and Tuscan bowed ;

And Eome may bear the pride of him of whom herself is proud.

But evermore a Claudius shrinks from a stricken field,

And changes colour like a maid at sight of sword and shield.

The Claudian triumphs all were won within the city-towers ;

The Claudian yoke was never pressed on any necks but ours.

A Cossus, like a wild-cat, springs ever at the face ;

A Fabius rushes like a boar against the shouting chase ;

But the vile Claudian litter, raging with currish spite,

Still yelps and snaps at those who run, still runs from those who smite.

So now 'twas seen of Appius. When stones began to fly,

He shook, and crouched, and wrung his hands, and smote upon his thigh.

" Kind clients, honest lictors, stand by me in this fray !

Must I be torn to pieces ? Home, home, the nearest way !"

VIRGINIA.

173

While yet he spake, and looked around with a bewildered stare,
Four sturdy lictors put their necks beneath the curule chair ;
And fourscore clients on the left, and fourscore on the right,
Arrayed themselves with swords and staves, and loins girt up for fight.
But though without or staff or sword, so furious was the throng,
That scarce the train with might and main could bring their lord along.
Twelve times the crowd made at him ; five times they seized his gown ;
Small chance was his to rise again, if once they got him down ;
And sharper came the pelting ; and evermore the yell —
" Tribunes ! we will have Tribunes !" — rose with a louder swell :

174

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

And the chair tossed as tosses a bark with tattered sail

When raves the Adriatic beneath an eastern gale,

When the Calabrian sea-marks are lost in clouds of spume,

And the great Thunder-Cape has donned his veil of inky gloom.

One stone hit Appius in the mouth, and one beneath the ear ;

And ere he reached Mount Palatine, he swooned with pain and fear.

His cursed head, that he was wont to hold so high with pride,

Now, like a drunken man's, hung down, and swayed from side to side :

And when his stout retainers had brought him to his door,

His face and neck were all one cake of filth and clotted gore.

As Appius Claudius was that day, so may his grandson be !

God send Rome one such other sight, and send me there to see !

THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS.

THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS.

It can hardly be necessary to remind any reader that,
according to the popular tradition, Komulus, after he had
slain his grand-uncle Amulius, and restored his grandfather
Numitor, determined to quit Alba, the hereditary domain
of the Sylvian princes, and to found a new city. The Gods,
it was added, vouchsafed the clearest signs of the favour with
which they regarded the enterprise, and of the high destinies
reserved for the young colony.

This event was likely to be a favourite theme of the old
Latin minstrels. They would naturally attribute the project
of Romulus to some divine intimation of the power and pros-
perity which it was decreed that his city should attain. They
would probably introduce seers foretelling the victories of un-
born Consuls and Dictators, and the last great victory would
generally occupy the most conspicuous place in the prediction.
There is nothing strange in the supposition that the poet
who was employed to celebrate the first great triumph of the

178 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Romans over the Greeks might throw his song of exultation
into this form.

The occasion was one likely to excite the strongest feelings
of national pride. A great outrage had been followed by a
great retribution. Seven years before this time, Lucius Post-
humius Megellus, who sprang from one of the noblest houses
of Rome, and had been thrice Consul, was sent ambassador
to Tarentum, with charge to demand reparation for grievous
injuries. The Tarentines gave him audience in their theatre,
where he addressed them in such Greek as he could com-
mand, which, we may well believe, was not exactly such as
Cineas would have spoken. An exquisite sense of the ridicu-
lous belonged to the Greek character ; and closely connected
with this faculty was a strong propensity to flippancy and
impertinence. When Posthumius placed an accent wrong,
his hearers burst into a laugh. When he remonstrated, they
hooted him, and called him barbarian ; and at length hissed
him off the stage as if he had been a bad actor. As the
grave Roman retired, a buffoon, who, from his constant
drunkenness, was named the Pint-pot, -came up with gestures
of the grossest indecency, and bespattered the senatorial
gown with filth. Posthumius turned round to the multitude,
and held up the gown, as if appealing to the universal law

THE PROPHECY OF CAP YS. 179

of nations. The sight only increased the insolence of the
Tarentines. They clapped their hands and set up a shout
of laughter which shook the theatre. " Men of Tarentum,"
said Posthumius, " it will take not a little blood to wash this
gown. *

Rome, in consequence of this insult, declared war against
the Tarentines. The Tarentines sought for allies beyond the
Ionian Sea. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, came to their help with
a large army ; and, for the first time, the two great nations of
antiquity were fairly matched against each other.

The fame of Greece in arms, as well as in arts, was then
at the height. Half a century earlier, the career of Alex-
ander had excited the admiration and terror of all nations
from the Ganges to the Pillars of Hercules. Eoyal houses,
founded by Macedonian captains, still reigned at Antioch
and Alexandria. That barbarian warriors, led by barbarian-
chiefs, should win a pitched battle against Greek valour
guided by Greek science, seemed as incredible as it would
now seem that the Burmese or the Siamese should, in the
open plain, put to flight an equal number of the best English
troops. The Tarentines were convinced that their country-

* Dion. Hal. De Legationibus.

180

LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME.

men were irresistible in war; and this conviction had em-
boldened them to treat with the grossest indignity one whom
they regarded as the representative of an inferior race. Of
the Greek generals then living Pyrrhus was indisputably the
first. Among the troops who were trained in the Greek dis-
cipline his Epirotes ranked high. His expedition to Italy
was a turning-point in the history of the world. He found
there a people who, far inferior to the Athenians and Corin-

THE PROPHECY OF CAPTS. 181

thians in the fine arts, in the speculative sciences, and in all
the refinements of life, were the best soldiers on the face of
the earth. Their arms, their gradations of rank, their order
of battle, their method of intrenchment, were all of Latian
origin, and had all been gradually brought near to perfection,
not by the study of foreign models, but by the genius and
experience of many generations of great native commanders.
The first words which broke from the king, when his prac-
tised eye had surveyed the Roman encampment, were full of
meaning : " These barbarians," he said, " have nothing bar-
barous in their military arrangements." He was at first vic-
torious ; for his own talents were superior to those of the cap-
tains who were opposed to him ; and the Eomans were not
prepared for the onset of the elephants of the East, which
were then for the first time seen in Italy — moving mountains,
with long snakes for hands.* But the victories of the Epi-
rotes were fiercely disputed, dearly purchased, and altogether
unprofitable. At length, Manius Curius Dentatus, who had
in his first Consulship won two triumphs, was again placed
at the head of the Eoman Commonwealth, and sent to en-
counter the invaders. A great battle was fought near Bene-

* Anguimanus is the old Latin epithet for an elephant. Lucretius, ii.
538; v. 1302.

182

LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

ventum. Pyrrhus was completely defeated. He repassed the
sea; and the world learned with amazement, that a people
had been discovered, who, in fair fighting, were superior to the
best troops that had been drilled on the system of Parmenio
and Antigonus. ,

The conquerors had a good right to exult in their success ;
for their glory was all their own. They had not learned from
their enemy how to conquer him. It was with their own na-
tional arms, and in their own national battle-array, that they
had overcome weapons and tactics long believed to be invin-
cible. The pilum and the broadsword had vanquished the

THE PROPHECY OF CAPTS.

183

Macedonian spear. The legion had broken the Macedonian
phalanx. Even the elephants, when the surprise produced
by their first appearance was over, could cause no disorder in
the steady yet flexible battalions of Home.

It is said by Florus, and may easily be believed, that the
triumph far surpassed in magnificence any that Borne had
previously seen. The only spoils which Papirius Cursor and

Fabius Maximus could exhibit were flocks and herds, wagons
of rude structure, and heaps of spears and helmets. But now,
for the first time, the riches of Asia and the arts of Greece
adorned a Boman pageant. Plate, fine stuffs, costly furni-
ture, rare animals, exquisite paintings and sculptures, formed
part of the procession. At the banquet would be assembled
a crowd of warriors and statesmen, among whom Manius
Curius Dentatus would take the highest room. Caius Fabri-
cius Luscinus, then, after two Consulships and two triumphs,

184 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Censor of the Commonwealth, would doubtless occupy a place
of honour at the board. In situations less conspicuous pro-
bably lay some of those who were, a few years later, the
terror of Carthage; Caius Duilius, the founder of the mari-
time greatness of his country ; Marcus Atilius Regulus, who
owed to defeat a renown far higher than that which he had
derived from his victories ; and Caius Lutatius Catulus, who,
while suffering from a grievous wound, fought the great battle
of the iEgates, and brought the First Punic War to a trium-
phant close. It is impossible to recount the names of these
eminent citizens, without reflecting that they were all, with-
out exception, Plebeians, and would, but for the ever memo-
rable struggle maintained by Caius Licinius and Lucius Sex-
tius, have been doomed to hide in obscurity, or to waste in
civil broils, the capacity and energy which prevailed against
Pyrrhus and Hamilcar.

On such a day we may suppose that the patriotic enthu-
siasm of a Latin poet would vent itself in reiterated shouts of
Io triwmphe, such as were uttered by Horace on a far less ex-
citing occasion, and in boasts resembling those which Virgil
put into the mouth of Anchises. The superiority of some
foreign nations, and especially of the Greeks, in the lazy arts
of peace, would be admitted with disdainful candour ; but pre-

THE PROPHECY OP CAPTS.

185

eminence in all the qualities which fit a people to subdue and
govern mankind would be claimed for the Eomans.

The following lay belongs to the latest age of Latin ballad-
poetry. Naavius and Livius Andronicus were probably among
the children whose mothers held them up to see the chariot
of Curius go by. The minstrel who sang on that day might
possibly have lived to read the first hexameters of Ennius,
and to see the first comedies of Plautus. His poem, as might
be expected, shows a much wider acquaintance with the geo-
graphy, manners, and productions of remote nations, than
would have been found in compositions of the age of Camillus.
But he troubles himself little about dates ; and having heard
travellers talk with admiration of the Colossus of Rhodes, and
of the structures and gardens with which the Macedonian
kings of Syria had embellished their residence on the banks
of the Orontes, he has never thought of inquiring whether
these things existed in the age of Romulus.

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THE PROPHECY OE CAPYS.

A LAY SUNG AT THE BANQUET IN THE CAPITOL, ON THE
DAT WHEREON MANIUS CURIUS DENTATUS, A SECOND TIME
CONSUL, TRIUMPHED OVER KING PYRRHUS AND THE
TARENTINES, IN THE YEAR OP THE CITY CCCCLXXIX.

Now slain is King Amulius,
Of the great Sylvian line,

Who reigned in Alba Longa,
On the throne of Aventine.

Slain is the Pontiff Camers,
Who spake the words of doom :

Wl

" The children to the Tiber,
The mother to the tomb."

II.
In Alba's lake no fisher

His net to-day is flinging :
On the dark rind of Alba's oaks

To-day no axe is ringing :
The yoke hangs o'er the manger :

The scythe lies in the hay :
Through all the Alban villages

No work is done to-day.

III.
And every Alban burgher

Hath donned his whitest gown ;
And every head in Alba

Weareth a poplar crown ;
And every Alban door-post

With boughs and flowers is gay :
For to-day the dead are living :

The lost are found to-day.

IV.
They were doomed by a bloody king :
They were doomed by a lying priest :

They were cast on the raging flood :
They were tracked by the raging beast :

Raging beast and raging flood
Alike have spared the prey ;

And to-day the dead are living :
The lost are found to-day.

V.
The troubled river knew them,

And smoothed his yellow foam,
And gently rocked the cradle

That bore the fate of Rome.
The ravening she-wolf knew them,

And licked them o'er and o'er,
And gave them of her own fierce milk

Rich with raw flesh and gore.
Twenty winters, twenty springs,

Since then have rolled away ;
And to-day the dead are living :

The lost are found to-day.

VI.

Blithe it was to see the twins,

Right goodly youths and tall,
Marching from Alba Longa

To their old grandsire's hall.
Along their path fresh garlands

Are hung from tree to tree :
Before them stride the pipers,

Piping a note of glee.

VII.
On the right goes Romulus,
With arms to the elbows red,

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And in his hand a broadsword,

And on the blade a head —
A head in an iron helmet,

With horse-hair hanging down,
A shaggy head, a swarthy head,

Fixed in a ghastly frown —
The head of King Amulius

Of the great Sylvian line,
Who reigned in Alba Longa,

On the throne of Aventine.

VIII.
On the left side goes Remus,

With wrists and fingers red,
And in his hand a boar-spear,

And on the point a head —
A wrinkled head and aged,

With silver beard and hair,
And holy fillets round it,

Such as the pontiffs wear —
The head of ancient Camers,

Who spake the words of doom :
" The children to the Tiber ;

The mother to the tomb."

IX.

Two and two behind the twins

Their trusty comrades go,
Four and forty valiant men,

With club, and axe, and bow.
On each side every hamlet

Pours forth its joyous crowd,
Shouting lads and baying dogs,

And children laughing loud,
And old men weeping fondly

As Rhea's boys go by,
And maids who shriek to see the heads,

Yet, shrieking, press more nigh.

X.
So they marched along the lake ;

They marched by fold and stall,
By corn-field and by vineyard

Unto the old man's hall.

XI.
In the hall-gate sat Capys,

Capys, the sightless seer ;
From head to foot he trembled

As Romulus drew near.
And up stood stiff his thin white hair,

And his blind eyes flashed fire :
Hail ! foster child of the wonderous nurse !

Hail ! son of the wonderous sire.

XII.

" But thou — what dost thou here

In the old man's peaceful hall ?
What doth the eagle in the coop,

The bison in the stall ?
Our corn fills many a garner ;

Our vines clasp many a tree ;
Our flocks are white on many a hill ;

But these are not for thee.

XIII.

"For thee no treasure ripens

In the Tartessian mine :
For thee no ship brings precious bales

Across the Libyan brine :
Thou shalt not drink from amber ;

Thou shalt not rest on down ;
Arabia shall not steep thy locks,

Nor Sidon tinge thy gown.

XIV.
" Leave gold and myrrh and jewels,

Rich table and soft bed,
To them who of man's seed are born,

Whom woman's milk hath fed.

Thou wast not made for lucre,

For pleasure, nor for rest :
Thou, that art sprung from the War-god's loins,

And hast tugged at the she-wolf's breast.

XV.

" From sunrise unto sunset

All earth shall hear thy fame :
A glorious city thou shalt build,

And name it by thy name :
And there, unquenched through ages,

Like Vesta's sacred fire,
Shall live the spirit of thy nurse,

The spirit of thy sire.

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XVI.

" The ox toils through the furrow,

Obedient to the goad ;
The patient ass, up flinty paths,

Plods with his weary load :
With whine and bound the spaniel

His master's whistle hears ;
And the sheep yields her patiently

To the loud-clashing shears.

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XVII.

"But thy nurse will hear no master,

Thy nurse will bear no load ;
And woe to them that shear her,

And woe to them that goad !
When all the pack, loud baying,

Her bloody lair surrounds,
She dies in silence, biting hard,

Amidst the dying hounds.

XVIII.

" Pomona loves the orchard ;

And Liber loves the vine ;
And Pales loves the straw-built shed

Warm with the breath of kine.

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And Venus loves the whispers
Of plighted youth and maid,

In April's ivory moonlight
Beneath the chestnut shade.

XIX.

"But thy father loves the clashing

Of broadsword and of shield :
He loves to drink the steam that reeks

From the fresh battle-field :
He smiles a smile more dreadful

Than his own dreadful frown,
When he sees the thick black cloud of
smoke

Go up from the conquered town.

XX.

" And such as is the War-god,

The author of thy line,
And such as she -who suckled thee,

Even such be thou and thine.
Leave to the soft Campanian

His baths and his perfumes ;
Leave to the sordid race of Tyre

Their dyeing- vats and looms :
Leave to the sons of Carthage

The rudder and the oar :
Leave to the Greek his marble
Nymphs,

And scrolls of wordy lore.

XXI.

" Thine, Roman, is the pilum :

Roman, the sword is thine,
The even trench, the bristling mound,

The legion's ordered line ;
And thine the wheels of triumph,

Which with their laurelled train
Move slowly up the shouting streets 11^

To Jove's eternal fane.

SPOMA

OPIMA

VIR.IDQAMftVS'J

XXII.

" Beneath thy yoke the Volscian

Shall vail his lofty brow :
Soft Capua's curled revellers

Before thy chairs shall bow :
The Lucumoes of Arnus

Shall quake thy rods to see ;
And the proud Samnite's heart of steel

Shall yield to only thee.

XXIII.

" The Gaul shall come against thee
From the land of snow and night :

Thou shalt give his fair-haired armies
To the raven and the kite.

XXIV.
" The Greek shall come against thee,

The conqueror of the East.
Beside him stalks to battle

The huge earth-shaking beast,

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The beast on whom the castle

With all its guards doth stand,
The beast who hath between his eyes

The serpent for a hand.
First march the bold Epirotes,

Wedged close with shield and spear ;
And the ranks of false Tarentum

Are glittering in the rear.

xxv.
" The ranks of false Tarentum

Like hunted sheep shall fly :
In vain the bold Epirotes

Shall round their standards die ;
And Apennine's gray vultures

Shall have a noble feast
On the fat and the eyes

Of the huge earth-shaking beast.

XXVI.

" Hurrah ! for the good weapons
That keep the War-god's land.

Hurrah ! for Rome's stout pilum
In a stout Roman hand.

Hurrah ! for Rome's short broad-
sword,

That through the thick array
Of levelled spears and serried shields

Hews deep its gory way.

XXVII.
" Hurrah ! for the great triumph

That stretches many a mile.
Hurrah ! for the wan captives

That pass in endless file.
Ho ! bold Epirotes, whither

Hath the Red King ta'en flight ?
Ho ! dogs of false Tarentum,

Is not the gown washed white ?

XXVIII.
" Hurrah ! for the great triumph

That stretches many a mile.
Hurrah ! for the rich dye of Tyre

And the fine web of Nile,
The helmets gay with plumage

Torn from the pheasant's wings,
The belts set thick with starry gems

That shone on Indian kings,

The urns of massy silver,

The goblets rough with gold,
The many-coloured tablets bright

With loves and wars of old,
The stone that breathes and struggles,

The brass that seems to speak ; —
Such cunning they who dwell on high

Have given unto the Greek.

XXIX.
" Hurrah ! for Manius Curius,

The bravest son of Home,
Thrice in utmost need sent forth,

Thrice drawn in triumph home.
Weave, weave, for Manius Curius

The third embroidered gown :
Make ready the third lofty car,

And twine the third green crown,
And yoke the steeds of Rosea

With necks like a bended bow ;
And deck the bull, Mevania's bull,

The bull as white as snow.

XXX.

" Blest and thrice blest the Roman

Who sees Rome's brightest day,
Who sees that long victorious pomp

Wind down the Sacred Way,
And through the bellowing Forum,

And round the Suppliant's Grove,
Up to the everlasting gates

Of Capitolian Jove.

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XXXI.

" Then where, o'er two bright havens,

The towers of Corinth frown ;
Where the gigantic King of Day

On his own Rhodes looks down ;
Where soft Orontes murmurs

Beneath the laurel shades ;
Where Nile reflects the endless length

Of dark-red colonnades ;
Where in the still deep water,

Sheltered from waves and blasts,
Bristles the dusky forest

Of Byrsa's thousand masts ;
Where fur-clad hunters wander

Amidst the northern ice ;
Where through the sand of morning-land

The camel bears the spice ;
Where Atlas flings his shadow

Far o'er the western foam,
Shall be great fear on all who hear

The mighty name of Rome."

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I Y R Y:

A SONG OF THE HUGUENOTS.

I V E Y.

Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are !

And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre !

Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance,

Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vines, oh pleasant land of

France !
And thou, Rochelle, our own Rochelle, proud city of the waters,
Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daughters.
As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy,
For cold, and stiff, and still are they who wrought thy walls annoy.
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! a single field hath turned the chance of war,
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! for Ivry, and Henry of Navarre.

Oh ! how our hearts were beating, when, at the dawn of day,
We saw the army of the League drawn out in long array ;
With all its priest-led citizens, and all its rebel peers,
And Appenzel's stout infantry, and Egmont's Flemish speafs.

27

210 I V E Y :

There rode the brood of false Lorraine, the curses of our land ;
And dark Mayenne was in the midst, a truncheon in his hand :
And, as we looked on them, we thought of Seine's empurpled flood,
And good Coligni's hoary hair all dabbled with his blood ;
And we cried unto the living God, who rules the fate of war,
To fight for his own holy name, and Henry of Navarre.

The King is come to marshal us, in all his armour drest,

And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest.

He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye ;

He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high.

Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing,

Down all our line, a deafening shout, " God save our Lord the King.'

" An if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may,

For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray,

Press where ye see my white plume shine, amidst the ranks of war,

And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre."

Hurrah ! the foes are moving. Hark to the mingled din,
Of fife, and steed, and trump, and drum, and roaring culverin.
The fiery Duke is pricking fast across Saint Andrews plain,
With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Almayne.
Now by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France,
Charge for the golden lilies, — upon them with the lance.

A SONG OF THE HUGUENOTS. 2 H

A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in rest,
A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white crest ;
And in they burst, and on they rushed, while, like a guiding star,
Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre.

Now, God be praised, the day is ours. Mayenne hath turned his rein.

D'Aumale hath cried for quarter. The Flemish count is slain.

Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay gale ;

The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven mail.

And then we thought on vengeance, and, all along our van,

" Remember Saint Bartholomew," was passed from man to man.

But out spake gentle Henry, " No Frenchman is my foe :

Down, down, with every foreigner, but let your brethren go."

Oh ! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war,

As our Sovereign Lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre ?

Right well fought all the Frenchmen who fought for France to-day ;
And many a lordly banner God gave them for a prey.
But we of the religion have borne us best in fight ;
And the good Lord of Rosny hath ta'en^the cornet white.
Our own true Maximilian the cornet white hath ta'en,
The cornet white with crosses black, the flag of false Lorraine.
Up with it high ; unfurl it wide ; that all the host may know
How God hath humbled the proud house which wrought his church such
woe.

212 IVRT: A SONG OF THE HUGUENOTS.

Then on the ground, while trumpets sound their loudest point of war,
Fling the red shreds, a footcloth meet for Henry of Navarre.

Ho ! maidens of Vienna ; Ho ! matrons of Lucerne ;

Weep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall return.

Ho ! Philip, send, for charity, thy Mexican pistoles,

That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen's souls.

Ho ! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright ;

Ho ! burghers of Saint Genevieve, keep watch and ward to-night.

For our God hath crushed the tyrant, our God hath raised the slave,

And mocked the counsel of the wise, and the valour of the brave.

Then glory to his holy name, from whom all glories are ;

And glory to our Sovereign Lord, King Henry of Navarre.

THE ARMADA:

A FRAGMENT.

THE AEMADA.

Attend, all ye who list to hear our noble England's praise ;
I tell of the thrice famous deeds she wrought in ancient days,
When that great fleet invincible against her bore in vain
The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain.

It was about the lovely close of a warm summer day,
There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth Bay ;
Her crew hath seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's isle,
At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving many a mile.
At sunrise she escaped their van, by God's especial grace ;
And the tall Pinta, till the noon, had held her close in chase.
Forthwith a guard at every gun was placed along the wall ;
The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgecumbe's lofty hall ;
Many a(lighl} fishing bark put out to pry along the coast,
And with loose rein and bloody spur rode inland many a post.
With his white hair unbonneted, the stout old sheriff comes ;
Behind him march the halberdiers ; before him sound the drums :

216 THE ARMADA:

His yeomen round the market cross make clear an ample space ;

For there behoves him to set up the standard of Her Grace.

And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gaily dance the bells,

As slow upon the labouring wind the royal blazon swells.

Look how the Lion of the sea lifts up his ancient crown,

And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay lilies down.

So stalked he when he turned to flight, on that famed Picard field,

Bohemia's plume, and Genoa's bow, and Caesar's eagle shield.

So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay,

And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay.

Ho ! strike the flag-staff deep, Sir Knight : ho ! scatter flowers, fair

maids :
Ho ! gunners, fire a loud salute : ho ! gallants, draw your blades :
Thou sun, shine on her joyously; ye breezes, waft her wide;
Our glorious semper eadem, the banner of our pride.

The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner's massy fold ;
The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold ;
Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea,
Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be.
From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay,
That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day ;
For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly war-flame spread,
High on St. Michael's Mount it shone : it shone on Beachy Head.
Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire,
Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire.

A 'FRAGMENT. 217

The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar's glittering waves :
The rugged miners poured to war from Mendip's sunless caves :
O'er Longleat's towers, o'er Cranbourne's oaks, the fiery herald flew :
He roused the shepherds of Stonehenge, the rangers of Beaulieu.
Right sharp and quick the bells all night rang out from Bristol town,
And ere the day three hundred horse had met on Clifton down ;
The sentinel on Whitehall gate looked forth into the night,
And saw o'erhanging Bichmond Hill the streak of blood-red light.
Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the deathlike silence broke,
And with one start and with one cry, the royal city woke.
At once on all her stately gates arose the answering fires ;
At once the wild alarum clashed from all her reeling spires ;
From all the batteries of the Tower pealed loud the voice of fear ;
And all the thousand masts of Thames sent back a louder cheer :
And from the furthest wards was heard the rush of hurrying feet,
And the broad streams of pikes and flags rushed down each roaring

street ;
And broader still became the blaze, and louder still the din,
As fast from every village round the horse came spurring in :
And eastward straight from wild Blackheath the warlike errand went,
And roused in many an ancient hall the gallant squires of Kent.
Southward from Surrey's pleasant hills flew those bright couriers

forth ;
High on bleak Hampstead's swarthy moor they started for the north;
And on, and on, without a pause, untired they bounded still :

218 THE ARMADA.

All night from tower to tower they sprang ; they sprang from hill to

hill:
Till the proud peak unfurled the flag o'er Darwin's rocky dales,
Till like volcanoes flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales,
Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Malvern's lonely height,
Till streamed in crimson on the wind the Wrekin's crest of light,
Till broad and fierce the star came forth on Ely's stately fane,
And tower and hamlet rose in arms o'er all the boundless plain ;
Till Belvoir's lordly terraces the sign to Lincoln sent,
And Lincoln sped the message on o'er the wide vale of Trent ;
Till Skiddaw saw the fire that burned on Gaunt's embattled pile,
And the red glare on Skiddaw roused the burghers of Carlisle.

******

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Note. — The coins, when not otherwise specified, have been drawn from
the originals in the British Museum. Each illustration not included in
the following list is the invention of the artist, George Scharf, Jr.

Page.

1. Ornamental Title.' — A very ancient bronze statue of the Wolf and

Twins, in the Etruscan style, preserved in the Capitol at Rome.

Two Sibyls, engraved by Marc Antonio, from designs by Raphael.
5. Early coin of the Licinian family, on which the sons of Brutus are

seen guarded by lictors.
35. Civic wreath, and head of Codes, from a Roman denarius.
37. The reverse of a coin of Antoninus Pius, in the Museum at Paris.
42. Head of Lucius Junius Brutus, from Visconti's Iconographie Bo-

maine. On the left is the reverse of a coin of Marcus Brutus.

The other coin is also of Marcus Brutus, with his own head and

that of his predecessor, Lucius Junius Brutus.
50. From a design by Polidoro Caravaggio.
61. From a gem in the Museum Florentinum, published by Gori.
79. A coin of Bruttium, representing the Dioscuri announcing the

victory.
81. Aulus Postumius Regillensis, from a coin of the Postumian family.

220 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Page.

83. The Delphic oracle, a female consulting Apollo, from Sir "W.

Hamilton's vases.

84. Mucius Scaevola, from an antique gem in the Florentine Museum,

published by Gori.

85. Cloelia crossing the Tiber, from an engraving by Bonasoni, in-

vented by Raphael.

86. The fight round the body of Patroclus, from a painted vase pub-

lished by Millin.

94. The Salian priests bearing the sacred ancilia, from a cast of the

gem in the Florentine Museum. See p. 48 and p. 135.

95. From the Parthenon frieze.

101. Eagle's nest, from a sculpture in the Vatican Museum.
129. Coin of Lacedsemon with the Dioscuri, engraved by Millin.
137. Two early Roman coins representing the Dioscuri with their horses.

The centre is from a bas-relief in the Spada collection at Rome.
139. From a cast of a gem in Rome.
141. Roman tomb, from Santi Bartoli.
156. Lucretia stabbing herself, from the drawing by Raphael, engraved

under his own inspection by Marc Antonio.
175. The Goddess Rome seated, from the column of Antoninus Pius,

in the Vatican.
180. A statue in the Capitol at Rome, supposed to be Pyrrhus. The

head on the coin is considered by Visconti to represent Pyrrhus.

On the reverse is Thetis with armour for Achilles.

182. An example of Macedonian spears, in a fragment of the celebrated

mosaic from Pompeii representing Alexander the Great and
Darius, preserved in the Museum at Naples.

183. Wagons of rude structure, with spoils, &c, from the Arch of Sep-

timius Severus at Rome, engraved by Santi Bartoli.
185. Regal Macedonian coin.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

221

Page.

187. The divine origin of Rome. Mars descending to Rhea, from the
reverse of a medal of Antoninus Pius. The military standards
are from Trajan's column.

189. Two bas-reliefs from the sides of an altar preserved in the Vatican
Museum.

193. The Prophet, from the Vatican Virgil, engraved by Bartoli.

194. From the baths of Titus.

195. A banquet, from Micali.

196. From Pompeii, with the reverse of a coin of Commodus.

197. A town on fire, from a cartoon in the Louvre, by Giulio Romano.

The fruit from Raphael's Loggie in the Vatican.

198. Left column. — A coin of Campania. A coin of Tyre, bearing the

divinities Apollo and Hercules, and, between them, the murex
which produced the celebrated dye. The Duilian column, erected
to commemorate the earliest naval victory of the Romans, over
the Carthaginians, 260 B. c, recently engraved by Canina. A
Roman general presenting the aplustre to a female representing
Africa.
Right column. — Romulus bearing the first spolia opima, the arms
of Acron, king of the Cseninenses, whom he slew in battle, from
a cast of the gem in the Florentine Museum. A coin of the
Cornelia gens, representing A. Cornelius Cossus as victorious,
having slain Lars Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, and bearing
the second spolia opima. He triumphed over the Volscians.
(Livy, vi. 16.)

199. Left column. — A coin showing the third dedication of the spolia

opima, by Marcellus, who killed Viridomarus, king of the Gauls,
A. u. 530. The statue is a Gaulish chief, from the Gallery in
the Louvre. A coin of Tarentum; the small elephant is an
extraordinary addition to the usual type of the city, which is
Taras on the dolphin.

222 LATS OF ANCIENT ROME.

Page.

199. Right column. — A Samnite coin. A barbarian prisoner, from

the Louvre. A head called Pyrrhus, from a cast of the gem in
the Florentine Museum. Beneath is a battle with elephants,
from a sarcophagus in the Capitol Museum.

200. A coin of Vespasian with the elephants subservient to a Roman

triumph. (Paecatus, Paneg. Theod. c. 22.) The two groups
of heroes and Amazons are from the famous bronzes of Siris,
preserved in the British Museum. There is great probability
that they were part of the armour worn by some Greek of high
rank in the last battle between Pyrrhus and the Romans ; the
military trophies are taken from those on the Capitol, and a
frieze from the temple of Bacchus.

201. 202. From the cartoons by Andrea Mantegna, now preserved at

Hampton Court.

203. Victory sacrificing a bull, from a group in the British Museum.

The candelabrum is from the Louvre. Coin of Augustus, show-
ing the embroidered gown, sceptre, and crown; and on the
reverse, steeds and car. The captives below are from cameos
preserved in Vienna and Paris.

204. Jupiter Capitolinus, from a coin of Vitellius. The Arch of Con-

stantine, on the Via Triumphalis at Rome.

205. Left column. — Coin of Corinth. The River Nile, from a coin of

Hadrian. Sarmatia, from a coin of Constantine. Mauritania,
from a coin of Hadrian.

Bight column. — Coin of Rhodes. Coin of Antiocheia, with the
River Orontes at her feet. Coin of Carthage. Arabia, from
a coin of Trajan.

206. The apotheosis of a Roman emperor, from a cameo at Paris.

THE END.

Canton Press of C. Sherman, Son & Co.